Chapter 33: The Stormy Night

The night passed in silence, as if something had occurred, yet as if nothing had happened at all. Everything was impossibly calm, and yet, there was an undercurrent of surging, dark intent.

Both morning and noon, servants came to summon Avia and Wang Yu to dine, but both chose to decline.

The rain continued to fall, just as the Eye of the Heavens had foretold, without the slightest sign of abating.

Heavy, pitch-black clouds suffocated every trace of light; even the summer sun could not tear through this dismal, wretched veil.

Watching the rain drip incessantly outside the window and the sun sinking lower, Wang Yu turned to Avia, who was tucking small objects beneath her noble attire. "Are you ready?"

The girl had finished packing everything necessary; beneath the seemingly neat and proper noble garments lay various magitech items and tools she had crafted herself.

Wang Yu was the same; beneath his seemingly thin leather armor, he kept various instruments of slaughter pressed close to his skin.

"I am ready!" The girl nodded, her gaze fixed with determination upon the curtain of rain outside.

Night gradually descended, shrouding the manor beyond the city walls in darkness, as if everything were slowly vanishing into this endless abyss.

The roar of the falling rain drowned out all other sounds; looking out from the illuminated window, there was nothing but blackness.

The light within the clouds faded bit by bit. The night of the storm had arrived, and the manor felt like an isolated island in an endless sea, filled with a profound, deathly stillness.

Wang Yu curled the corner of his mouth slightly. Who would have guessed that this would be his finest battlefield? His enemies would never suspect it.

The dinner had been refused; neither Avia nor Wang Yu had any interest in testing whether Decathlon had nothing better to do than poison their food.

With a measured amount of dry rations and water, both kept themselves in peak condition.

"Let's go." Wang Yu adopted the standard posture of a servant facing his master, opened the door, and signaled for Avia to step out.

Avia smiled. The true storm was about to begin, yet she felt no fear, no retreat, and no trembling.

When one has accounted for the worst, prepared for failure, and possessed the resolve to face death, one can confront the path ahead with the same composure as Wang Yu.

Taking the hand Wang Yu extended, Avia rose and stepped out of the room, followed closely by him.

Light footsteps echoed in the corridor. Without a servant to lead them, Wang Yu and Avia walked on their own.

His gaze swept naturally across the surroundings. Seeing none of the servants who should have been there, Wang Yu nodded; the incense had been effective.

Arriving at Decathlon’s door, Wang Yu pushed it open. Inside, two or three servants were cleaning the room as before.

However, they were even more brazen than before; in places easily reached, daggers lay in plain sight.

Though they appeared to be cleaning diligently, Wang Yu could feel several gazes lingering upon him.

"My dear little niece, you really did come, though why refuse your uncle's invitation?" Decathlon’s fat face still wore that signature, hypocritical smile.

The girl remained expressionless. "Thank you for your kindness, Uncle, but I truly have no appetite, so I must apologize for wasting your good intentions."

"Very well, very well! Little Avia is a guest, so naturally, she can do as she pleases. Just treat this place as your own home!"

Decathlon raised his voice, spreading his arms in a gesture of magnanimity, though his words were grating to the ear.

"I know that, of course. You are too kind, Uncle. Let us skip the pleasantries. I shall hand over the manor and the title to you, and you shall give me the location of my mother. If we do that, the deal is struck. How about it?"

The girl looked directly into Decathlon’s eyes, her slender frame held straight, a sense of presence contained within her.

"Very well. It seems our little Avia is impatient. As your uncle, I certainly cannot be slow."

He clapped his hands, summoned another servant from his side, and took an iron box from him.

Opening it, he revealed a mechanical bird that looked much like a magitech messenger, though far more exquisite.

The gears and mechanical parts were no longer exposed, replaced by lifelike feathers and ornaments.

"I paid a high price for this magitech messenger. This is your mother’s magic beacon. Verify it."

He did not hand the messenger to Avia, but instead passed her a small card engraved with complex magic runes. Avia pulled a staff from her bag and channeled magic into the card.

Mira Swain—the familiar signature appeared before Avia. She nodded, coldly signaling to Decathlon that there was no issue.

She reached for the magitech messenger, but Decathlon covered it with his hand, keeping it out of her reach.

"Oh, my, I paid a fortune for this messenger. It can be used repeatedly, but since my dear niece is willing to transfer her noble rights to me, I shall not be stingy. You may keep it after you are done."

"This is a high-end piece, certainly not a one-time use item..." Decathlon faced Avia, his smile unchanging.

"However..." The smile paused, and his tone shifted.

"My dear niece, shouldn't you be a little less hasty? Shouldn't you show some sincerity first?"

His eyes narrowed, and his sharp gaze pierced Avia, the cunning and threat in his eyes undisguised.

He rubbed his fat hands together; clearly, Decathlon would not hand over the item so easily.

Avia’s brow furrowed, appearing quite displeased, but Decathlon merely watched her with a smirk, showing no sign of backing down.

Seeming to deflate, the girl’s posture slumped, and under Decathlon’s triumphant gaze, she nodded.

"Very well, my dear uncle. I shall naturally show my sincerity. My previous land deeds and noble certificates are with our horse, just as they were yesterday."

"We instructed the horse to return upon receiving a signal. How about this: I will have my knight go to the stables to send the signal, and once the horse returns, we shall retrieve the items and make the exchange?"

"My little niece, it is not a good habit to reveal the situation only now. If I give this to you, won't you just ride off on your horse?"

"However, I am generous, so I shall overlook it. My servant and your knight shall go together to retrieve them, and we will exchange once they are back."

Decathlon remained smiling, his words utterly shameless. To speak of using Avia’s mother as a threat so openly was enough to make one laugh.

The girl bit her lower lip, appearing deeply unwilling, but in the end, she could only nod and agree to Decathlon’s demands.

Decathlon maintained his smile. Did such a scheme have any meaning? Though she had some courage, in the end, the gap was too wide.

Whether in strategy or raw strength, she couldn't truly believe that after the exchange, his little niece and her knight-servant would walk out of this manor alive, could she?

Still, it was better to give such naivety a little hope. He signaled for one of the servants who had been listening to the conversation to step forward.

"You, follow him and go get the items!" He pointed a crude finger at Wang Yu, who stood behind Avia.

The servant nodded, walked over, and shoved Wang Yu rudely, signaling him to move quickly and not dawdle.

Wang Yu showed no sign of anger; he obediently led the man—who looked nothing like a servant—out the door.

Just then, the other two cleaning servants walked over and whispered something into Decathlon’s ear.

Decathlon frowned, but waved them away impatiently. The two giggled and followed Wang Yu and the other servant outside.

In the room, only Avia, who kept her head down with a furrowed brow, and Decathlon, who sipped his red wine with a self-satisfied smile, remained.

Outside the window lay the endless darkness and the ceaseless storm. Everything was set against the backdrop of that stormy night, vanishing into the dark.

...

"Ah, finally, we can get out and walk around. I don't know why, but I just wanted to get some air. It's so stifling on a summer night."

"Right, right, it was killing me. That guy Decathlon stays cooped up in that room all day long, doing who knows what. Do you think he even takes a dump in there?"

"Possible!"

"Hee hee hee hee!"

Wang Yu led the designated servant in front, while the two who had followed them out began to chatter wildly.

They burst into laughter from time to time, making no effort to maintain their disguise as servants.

In their eyes, Wang Yu posed no threat; even if they didn't hide it, there was nothing he could do.

The facts seemed to match their thoughts; the knight-servant Wang Yu, in their eyes, showed no reaction to their words, simply continuing to walk with his head down.

It seemed he had abandoned all struggle, which only emboldened the two men trailing behind.

Seeing Wang Yu’s cowardly display, the man designated to oversee the retrieval of the items felt a smirk tug at the corners of his mouth.

As they reached the entrance, a crowd of at least thirty people could be seen huddled by the mansion’s gate, either chatting aimlessly or smoking the common tobacco of this world, though all of them remained strictly outdoors.

A closer look revealed these to be the same "servants" Wang Yu had seen earlier; on this rainy night, they seemed to have shed their disguises, brazenly revealing their true identities as mercenaries.

"Coming out for some air too?" one of the men in the group asked the three accompanying Wang Yu.

The two "servants" following behind nodded. "You said it. Who wants to stay inside? It’s stifling."

"Exactly, it’s unbearable."

The man beside Wang Yu, the one originally assigned to watch him, offered no response, merely nodding coldly.

"Typical of our Black Tooth leader, always so serious," someone in the crowd remarked, drawing a ripple of laughter.

A vein pulsed on the temple of the man beside Wang Yu, but he remained silent, simply kicking Wang Yu to signal him to hurry and stop wasting time.

Wang Yu complied with a submissive, wordless gait, trudging through the downpour without an umbrella until he was soaked to the bone.

The two men behind him chuckled, grabbing umbrellas offered by the others. "I’m going to see how our 'leader' and this spineless coward are getting on!"

It was clear that the title of "leader" was nothing more than a mockery among these men.

Wang Yu walked through the rain, stumbling as if the night were a great obstacle to his progress, yet he gradually drew closer to the manor’s stables.

The man beside him felt a flicker of surprise; he held a kerosene lamp, but its light was so limited in the pitch-black, rainy night that he himself could never have located the stables.

Yet this spineless, black-haired squire had found it with ease. Pure luck, he reasoned.

But since he was about to die, did luck even matter? He smiled, a blade sliding from his sleeve before being tucked away again.

Reaching the stable, Wang Yu looked up at the dark sky and let out a sharp, piercing whistle that cut through the night.

Moments later, a loud whinny echoed from the distance, the sound of hooves approaching rapidly.

Soon, Torrent broke through the curtain of rain and charged into the manor, hooves splashing mud as water streamed from his mane.

The horse came to a sudden halt before the stable, revealing a large bundle strapped to its belly.

The man behind Wang Yu saw the package; this must be what he had come for.

He drew the blade from his sleeve and crept slowly toward Wang Yu, who stood with his back turned, seemingly unsuspecting.

Wang Yu was stooped over, struggling to untie the bundle from Torrent’s belly; the rain made the knots slippery, and he fumbled for a long time.

The man smiled, stepping into the range for a lethal strike while Wang Yu remained oblivious.

Just then, Wang Yu undid the bundle, revealing the sharp glint of metal. "Wait, a sharp glint?"

Before the man could react, Wang Yu whipped a gleaming short axe from the pack. There was no deed—only three steel axes, cold and bright.

"Crack!" Driven by the violent synergy of Wang Yu’s aura and muscle, the cruel blade tore through the heavy rain, striking the man’s skull from beneath the chin.

Without a moment’s hesitation, like a blade slicing through tofu, the axe cleaved through everything—muscle, teeth, brain, and bone.

Blood and brains erupted from their vessel like a shattered watermelon; the man’s head was split clean in two, top to bottom.

The corpse, its head reduced to an unrecognizable mess, slumped to the ground, the sword falling from his hand before he could strike.

The kerosene lamp hit the mud, illuminating the blood mixing with the rainwater.

The two men following behind witnessed the bloody violence. Wang Yu stood up and, under their stunned gazes, smashed the lamp with a single swing of his axe.

Lamp oil spilled, and the meager flame was instantly extinguished by the torrential rain.

Darkness swallowed Wang Yu and the stable behind him, the pitch-black night hiding all.

The two men retreated in terror, blowing their whistles sharply. The piercing sound cut through the rain, reaching the others at the gate and Avia and Decathlon inside the mansion—a signal of an enemy attack and a cry for reinforcements.

But it was too late for the two stunned men. Three axes flew through the rain and darkness, one after another.

The unseen enemy was terrifying; there was no escape, no dodging. In their final moments of despair, the axes shattered the lamps in their hands and split their skulls in two.

As the lamps went out, the men at the mansion could no longer see into the rainy night, leaving only an endless void.

In the dark, Wang Yu moved without obstruction to the bodies of the two men, retrieving the axes stained with gore.

He let the rain wash the blood away, leaving it to flow silently in the dark. The scent of iron began to permeate the quiet, tumultuous night.

He sheathed the three axes into the extra pockets of his leather armor, walking steadily through the rain. Tonight, he was the butcher of the night, and he would send them all to hell.

...

Meanwhile, the piercing whistle reached Decathlon’s ears. He glanced at Avia sitting across from him. He didn’t know what had happened, but sensing the shift, he knew something had gone terribly wrong.

He had to control the girl before him; then, no matter what happened, he would have leverage!

Decathlon, despite his merchant-like appearance and build, possessed a decisiveness rare in ordinary men.

He looked at the wand the girl had placed on the table, a thought striking him: a mage without a wand was no threat at all. They had been too careless.

Control her, and whatever schemes her knight was plotting would be meaningless.

Without hesitation, Decathlon, who possessed the physique of a high-ranking squire, suddenly struck.

He pulled a short sword from beneath the table and swung at Avia, simultaneously touching the idol of the evil god. Avia would not be leaving this mansion today.

Though the strike was slightly slow due to his posture, his high-level squire physique made it swift. A mage without a staff, facing such a blow—she would be dead or maimed, surely controlled, right?

"Clang!" It was not the sound of a blade biting into flesh, but the ringing of metal on metal. On the girl’s right hand, the "Twin Star" gauntlet shimmered with earthy yellow light; her right arm rose, parrying the strike. Rock Will, modified!

"Wang Yu’s advice was truly useful..." The girl’s eyes were cold as she looked at Decathlon, whose fake smile had vanished, magic beginning to swirl around her.