Inside a small room, countless candles burned quietly around a coffin suspended at the center.
Beside the coffin sat a white rabbit woman, still dressed in the black skintight combat suit she wore during missions.
The only difference was that she had removed the hood that usually covered her head, revealing a pair of pure white rabbit ears.
In her hand, she casually spun a tiger claw blade.
The weapon flickered through the air at such speed it was almost invisible to the naked eye, yet every movement carried deadly precision.
In the dimly lit room, her eyes emitted a faint blue glow.
She simply stared at the coffin in the center, never shifting her gaze even slightly.
After a long while, a female deer beastman finally walked in from outside.
Seeing the white rabbit sitting alone beside the coffin, she spoke with reluctant sympathy.
“Dawn, Wilt’s memorial can end early now.
The others out on missions don’t have time to come.” As if she hadn’t heard a word, Dawn continued spinning the tiger claw blade in her hand.
The deer woman could only sigh silently before walking over and sitting beside her, accompanying her in staring blankly at the coffin.
“With teammates dying on missions practically every day, I thought you’d already gotten used to this.” “So why can’t you let go when it comes to Wilt?” “Nightwalker.” “What?” “During operations, we only use code names.
He hasn’t report back from the mission.” The deer woman looked helpless at Dawn’s stubborn insistence.
“He’s already dead.
Who’s still going to care about code names?” Then she added quietly, “Besides, you’re the only person left who even knew him.
Don’t you want to remember his real name?” The tiger claw blade that had been spinning endlessly suddenly stopped in Dawn’s grip.
She clenched it tightly and let out a brief cold snort.
“He taught me to strictly abide by these rules.” “And that’s what he would want to see.” “…Suit yourself.” Apparently irritated by the deer woman sitting beside her, Dawn spoke again.
“If you’ve got something to say, say it quickly.” “You can’t possibly be here just to talk nonsense with me.” “You really aren’t cute at all~” The deer woman pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.
The smoke immediately made Dawn sneeze.
Dawn glared at her in annoyance and shifted farther away.
“That red fox called.” After hearing that, Dawn fell silent for a moment before saying, “He’ll regret joining us.” “That’s assuming he can even find us.” The deer woman took a deep drag before exhaling a cloud of white smoke.
Watching it slowly drift upward, she turned back toward Dawn.
“How long do you think it’ll take him to find us?” “I’m betting one week.” Dawn clearly had no intention of answering.
She simply continued staring at the coffin while playing with the tiger claw blade.
Seeing Dawn completely ignore her again, the deer woman could only shake her head.
“Seriously not cute at all.” …
“We found the red signs!” Lidi, who had been sleeping, was abruptly awakened by Wency flapping him awake.
Still half-asleep and confused, he blinked blankly.
“What red signs?” “The red signs you talked about!” Wency immediately pulled out her phone and showed him several photos.
Displayed on the screen were several unusual red road signs.
Their format was identical to normal traffic signs— Except for the color.
Red.
A color that was extremely difficult for beastmen to notice clearly.
Normal public signs would almost never use it.
“I had someone investigate.” “There are only eleven locations in Huashan City that use these red signs.” Then she swiped to the next image.
A complete map of Huashan City appeared before Lidi.
“All the locations of the red signs are marked here.” “Do you notice anything strange?” Lidi stared at the marked points on the map.
The arrangement definitely looked deliberate.
“Is this…
a pentagram?” “Mm…
to me it looks more like one large and one small pentagon.” Wency seemed slightly amused by his imagination but didn’t dwell on it.
“The important part is this center point.” She pointed toward a marked location.
“This sign is probably where you need to go.” The location was a massive supermarket complex in Huashan City called Gallaf.
A popular weekend destination for beastmen— A place where they could enjoy air conditioning and spend money at the same time.
“At Gallaf?” “But that place is enormous.” “That’s still better than not knowing where to even start searching, isn’t it?” A warm feeling rose inside Lidi.
He couldn’t even remember how long it had been since he last experienced the feeling of having someone supporting him from behind.
He knew he should thank Wency.
After all, what she was doing now practically counted as harboring a fugitive.
And investigating something like this must have required a lot of connections and favors.
But for some reason— Every word of gratitude became impossible to say aloud.
Instead, tears quietly gathered in his eyes and began falling on their own.
Wency was startled by the sight.
“What’s wrong?” “Are you still hurt?” Lidi shook his head while sniffing back tears.
“No…” “I just want to say I’m sorry…” “Sorry for not coming back here all these years.” “Sorry for how you stayed beside me after my mother died while I never appreciated it.” “Sorry for never properly thanking you all these years…” As Lidi finally poured out all the feelings he had buried inside for years, Wency herself began tearing up too.
She stepped forward and hugged him tightly.
They remained like that for several minutes.
Eventually, Lidi cried himself out and slowly loosened his grip first.
“I think…
it’s about time I leave.” “Now that I know the location, I shouldn’t keep causing trouble for you anymore…” After saying that, he slowly stood up from the bed.
Compared to before, he was still weak, though he could at least barely walk now.
Wency stared at him, her tone no longer gentle.
“In your current condition, you wouldn’t even last ten minutes outside.” “And you still want to run all the way to Gallaf?” “Are you trying to find people or trying to get yourself killed?” Lidi understood exactly what she meant.
But if he stayed here any longer, the Black Guard would eventually trace him through some clue or another.
Still, he couldn’t argue back.
Because Wency was right.
Even normal movement was difficult right now, let alone evading pursuit.
“So what?
I’m just supposed to hide forever?” “Who said forever?” Wency immediately cut him off.
“What you need most right now is to recover your body, organize the information you have, and then decide your next move.” “At the very least, rest for a few more days before doing anything!” Listening to her nonstop lecturing, Lidi felt both helpless and strangely relieved.
He slowly let out a breath.
“Fine…” “I’ll stay a few more days.” Seeing him finally give in, Wency stopped pressing him further and turned toward the door.
“I’m going to prepare dinner.” “You should take a shower first.” “The smell coming off you is killing me.” After the door closed, Lidi was left alone in the room once again.
Everything became quiet.
He lowered his head and sniffed himself.
Yeah.
He really did stink.
Probably from crawling through the sewers earlier.
Honestly, he was amazed Aunt Wency had tolerated the smell for this long.
Without wasting more time, he headed straight into the bathroom, removed his clothes, and began washing himself.
As the soap scrubbed across his body, filthy black water poured off him continuously.
The hardened chunks of dried blood slowly peeled away one by one as well.
After cleaning himself, he didn’t leave immediately.
Instead, he simply stood there beneath the hot water, letting it pour over him.
Lowering his gaze, he looked at his hands.
Slowly clenching and relaxing them repeatedly.
His strength still wasn’t what it used to be.
He would probably need several days of rest to fully recover.
“So…
did I really kill someone?” The fragmented memories from the sewer made him uneasy.
He was afraid that his old condition had relapsed again.
It was something that happened back when he was still in middle school.
At the time, he had fought back against classmates who bullied him— And ended up accidentally hurting them.
In beastman society, there was an unspoken rule.
If a carnivorous beastman harmed a herbivorous beastman in any way, no matter the reason, the carnivore had to be subdued immediately.
This was because carnivorous beastmen generally possessed overwhelming physical advantages over herbivores.
And once carnivores smelled herbivore blood, there was an extreme chance their hunting instincts could activate.
Adults usually had enough self-control to resist that instinct.
But younger beastmen weren’t nearly as stable.
Back then, Lidi had only been a teenager.
An age full of violent emotions and unstable impulses.
And the incident happened inside the school’s sports equipment storage room— A place with no adults supervising.
So that incident happened…
A memory flashed through his mind.
His younger self biting into the arm of a calf beastman student.
Lidi’s body trembled violently.
Even beneath the hot water, he still felt cold.
And because of that incident— He had been branded with a label he could never remove.
“Level Two Dangerous Entity.” Lidi shut his eyes tightly, forcing himself to stop thinking about the past.
Right now, he needed to focus on surviving the present.
Otherwise, he might not even live to see tomorrow.
“Just a few days…” “I’ll rest a few more days…
then I’m leaving.”