The sky was dark as pitch; not a star, not a moon to be seen.
A single cloud had covered the whole sky, showing off its might.
Three people kept walking over the wet ground.
Lights burned in the houses around them, though some stood dark.
Through the transparent windows you could see people moving about inside.
At last they came up to a large wooden structure, by the look of it, a tavern.
Leng Yu opened the door without a moment’s delay, and every gaze inside fell on them; the room went quiet.
Some showed anger, but hid it; some showed fear, trying to hide it.
Saying nothing, Leng Yu headed for a free table for three.
Naturally, Feng Qi and Qing Wei followed him.
Gazes and silence still escorted them.
Feng Qi noticed a child of about ten, staring intently at Leng Yu with admiration.
“Heh-heh…
This could be useful,” Feng Qi thought.
He had already got a rough grasp of the hierarchy, at least in this village — ordinary people submitted to the “mages,” but didn’t want to, though some, like the children, followed their example and admired it.
Feng Qi glanced at the same child who had been watching Leng Yu, and now the child turned his gaze to Feng Qi, as if a celebrity had just noticed him.
Everyone in the tavern was dressed in ordinary clothes, some even in castoffs, and next to them Feng Qi, Leng Yu, and Qing Wei were the elite.
In general, a great deal could be understood from a person’s clothes alone, but that kind of information wasn’t of much use to Feng Qi.
“Waiter!” Leng Yu’s voice broke the silence.
Straight away a middle-aged man came running up to them.
“Y-yes, young master?”
“Two servings of beef and a jug of wine for us.”
“Ah, right!
Feng Qi, what will you have?”
Feng Qi decided to stay neutral.
“The same for me.”
“Three servings of beef and one jug of wine, then,” Leng Yu confirmed the order.
“Of course, young master!
Right away.”
In the end the waiter escaped the gaze of those three, and surely let out a deep breath.
“By the way, Feng Qi, how old are you?” Leng Yu asked.
“Hm?” Feng Qi was mildly surprised by so sudden a question.
“I’m twenty, and Qing Wei’s eighteen.”
Feng Qi wasn’t surprised at that, as it fit their looks, but their conduct and reactions on the assignment said they had been handling such cases since before they were of age.
“I’m nineteen.”
Though who knew: maybe adulthood came earlier here, or didn’t exist as such at all.
“Yeah?
Must have been terrible, spending four years in slavery.”
Though it didn’t sound like a question, it obviously was one.
“Was it supposed to be that terrible?
They just made me work for food.”
“So that’s how it is!
I imagined slavery quite differently.”
Feng Qi wasn’t worried: Leng Yu wasn’t trying to trip him up, only playing with him.
If he’d wanted to expose him, he would have asked a more pointed question.
“H-here’s your food!” said a different waiter, bowing as he set the food on the table. The source of this chapter is g.com.
The waiter had brought three small plates of beef, three wooden bowls, and a large porcelain jug with liquid inside.
The waiter vanished in an instant.
He apparently believed that if his guests disliked anything, they would kill him on the spot.
Leng Yu unhurriedly picked up the jug and asked, “Qing Wei, will you have some?”
“Nah,” Qing Wei replied, already starting on her food.
“And you, Feng Qi?”
“Sure, can’t very well leave you on your own,” Feng Qi replied with a slight laugh.
A different smile surfaced on Leng Yu’s face.
Then, taking his time, Leng Yu poured the wine, whose color faintly recalled Qing Wei’s eyes.
Feng Qi didn’t wait for Leng Yu to pick up his bowl; he took his own and had a sip of the wine.
The wine was neither too sour nor too sweet.
You could say a perfect balance had been struck.
Had it been even a touch sweeter or sourer, you could consider it a different wine entirely.
He set the bowl on the table and felt a stickiness in his mouth, a feeling as though every drop of moisture had left it.
But even considering that, Feng Qi liked the wine; he found its taste pleasant.
Leng Yu laughed quietly and took up the wine as well.
Feng Qi brought a piece of beef to his mouth.
In his mind surfaced the image of Bai Huidan’s corpse.
His red, bulging eyes, his ripped-open belly…
Feng Qi put the piece of meat into his mouth.
Strange: it was tender, all but melting on the tongue; either this was no ordinary tavern, or that was normal for this world.
The meat’s tender, warm juice ran down his throat.
Feng Qi set about recalling Bai Huidan.
He took piece after piece of beef, washing them down with wine.
Then suddenly he fixed on the image of the victim’s belly.
“Ha-ha, the organs, that’s it,” he exclaimed inwardly.
Feng Qi took another small piece of beef.
The thing was, the so-called “vigilante” had apparently taken the victim’s organs, and hidden the fact beneath the man’s own guts.
If rituals existed in this world, then that must have been what he had taken them for.
“So he’s no vigilante at all,” Feng Qi chuckled.
In any case, Qing Wei had already finished her portion, as had Feng Qi.
Only Leng Yu remained, finishing his last piece.
After finishing it, Leng Yu took from his pocket a polished sphere, about two fingers’ width across, and set it on the table.
The sphere resembled a large white pearl; at its center, something could just be made out.
Leng Yu rose together with Qing Wei, so Feng Qi decided not to keep them waiting and rose as well.
The three of them again formed a line and calmly walked out of the tavern.
All the while the people around had been whispering, and no one even dared to rise above that tone.
But once the three stepped out, sighs and chatter rose behind them.
Outside it smelled just as damp, and a cold rain was lightly dripping down.
Without so much as exchanging a glance, they walked down the same side, at the same speed, with the same final route.
“The third phase already…” Feng Qi mused.
It was clear that the drops falling at that moment were from the second phase of the rain.
But a different question interested Feng Qi.
“Can rain be summoned?” he asked suddenly. Get faster updates on g.com.
Qing Wei and Leng Yu turned to him calmly.
“Of course,” Qing Wei replied.
“More yes than no,” Leng Yu added.
Feng Qi sighed at that.
There was nothing negative in that sigh; he kept on thinking.
The raindrops kept growing larger, falling on Feng Qi’s head.
He could already see the large temple they were approaching.
There was no one on the street; people appeared only in the windows of the houses, and they were watching Feng Qi.
They came up to the temple, and Leng Yu opened the massive door.
“Go on.”
But Leng Yu didn’t step inside; he let Qing Wei pass and watched Feng Qi, who was still out on the street.
Light seeped from inside the temple, but it could not light the street.
Feng Qi chuckled and stepped into the temple, leaving Leng Yu to close the door.
He walked behind Qing Wei, but even if he had walked first, he would have gone to the same place as her.
Feng Qi walked behind Qing Wei, and Leng Yu walked behind Feng Qi; all of them walked to the same place, with the same intentions, but in different dimensions.
They came up to the same door they had gone out through for the assignment.
Qing Wei flung it open without delay; inside sat the same old man, as if he hadn’t even moved all this time.
The old man was silent, as was Qing Wei; even when Feng Qi came up, none of them said a word.
Right then Leng Yu came up as well, and immediately bowed.
“Master—”
“Bai Huidan, I already know.”
The old man’s answer caught Leng Yu by surprise, but he calmed almost instantly.
“A vigilante, who would have thought…” the old man continued.
Without delay, Feng Qi stepped forward.
“He planned everything.”
“Hm?” The old man sounded surprised.
Not wasting a moment, Feng Qi thrust his right hand forward, clearly meaning to lay something out.
“The vigilante killed the victim a couple of days ago, then planted the body in the house, summoning the rain while he was at it.
He clearly meant to wash away the traces!”
The old man looked at Leng Yu, who obediently nodded.
This angered Qing Wei, and she was clearly trying not to snap at the old man again.
“Interesting…
And is there any more evidence?” the old man said, looking Feng Qi straight in the eye.
Feng Qi was about to bow, but after a glance at Qing Wei’s face, he changed his mind.
“Unfortunately, the rain washed away everything that could be called evidence,” Feng Qi replied.
“Is that so?” The old man narrowed his eyes at Feng Qi, but shifted his gaze to Leng Yu once more, looking for confirmation.
As it turned out, that was an enormous mistake on his part.
“I’ve fucking had it with you!!” Qing Wei shouted, and slammed the door.
This looked like no ordinary conflict between relatives; there was something stronger to it.
“Then I suppose I’ll be going too,” Feng Qi said.
“Alright, alright,” the old man replied.
The smile on the old man’s face didn’t surprise Feng Qi; it only showed all the more who he was.
“Then would you mind if I took the same room I slept in today?”
“Of course.”
At that, Feng Qi left the room, leaving Leng Yu alone.