Chapter 236: Chapter 233 – Cat and Mouse (Part 1)
“No need for hugs.”
Ji Ma wore a black veiled hat that concealed her face, diminishing the charm she radiated.
She appeared on the second-floor staircase, her long boots creaking as she descended, draped in a black silk cloak that made her look like a noblewoman, but she bore a “branch axe gun” on her shoulder.
“Forget it, you are a married woman.”
Akanis chuckled and plopped down back into his chair, continuing to rest his legs on the tabletop.
“Not married yet,” she replied.
After saying this, she closed her legs and sat opposite Akanis, casually activating the “Quiet Secret Barrier.”
The curious gazes of mortals were blocked outside the barrier.
The witch hunter Akanis said casually, “The first child, ah, what should the egg be named? Have you decided?”
Ji Ma stared at Akanis’s cold, square face, wanting to punch him hard, saying:
“I have a job for you; I need you to steal something. It might take several days. I’ll handle the commuting; it’s as easy as closing your eyes and making a round trip.”
Akanis spread his hands, gloved in leather, with his palms facing up, and asked, “What’s your price? I have plenty of money.”
“I thought we were the best of friends.”
“Talking about feelings costs money.”
“Is your thieving skill still intact?”
“Of course.”
Akanis flipped a finger, miraculously revealing a gold coin engraved with “AD1357,” letting it roll on his finger. He said, “Guess what I stole?”
Ji Ma took out a mirror, and upon looking into it, saw a pair of backward-curving horns emerging from her hat; the arm ring that had been on her arm had vanished without a trace.
“Quick, give it back.”
“Are you anxious? After all, it’s your love token.”
Akanis flicked his wrist, and the silver arm ring whirled through the air toward Ji Ma.
She caught it and slid it back onto her arm.
“I recently did something big,” Akanis boasted. “I burned down a castle. Guess the identity of the castle owner?”
Ji Ma noticed the pallor of Akanis’s face, resembling death; he might have been hit by some death magic. She also observed a scar on the wrists of the nearby living souls, as if they had been bled for years. She asked, “Midnight nobility?”
“Do you see this bunch of half-dead fools?” Akanis pointed around. “They all look like zombies, almost as if they had ‘vampires are here’ written on their faces. No need to ask me back.”
Ji Ma’s expression changed: “So this is in Silvany?”
“Exactly, they sent me here. It’s truly backward, lifeless—each one duller than the last.” Akanis sighed. “And there’s no lively green skins nearby.”
“I thought your green skin syndrome was cured,” Ji Ma whispered, asking, “I heard Silvany is a ghost town, with the empire’s tax exemption no one coming. Living and dead coexist, unable to eliminate each other. Aren’t you afraid of causing trouble with your arrogance?”
“They can’t do anything to me; I’m a witch hunter.” Akanis boasted, pulling out a silver-plated dagger and stabbing it into the table. “I’m the cat; they’re merely mice in the midnight. I won’t go looking for them; they’d be happy not to bother me, let alone come looking for me.”
Suddenly, a flurry of bat squeaks erupted from outside the window, as the cold wind caused the wooden window to creak, with fresh garlic strings hanging before the window trembling.
Ji Ma looked around cautiously.
The zombie-like living souls, sensing something, displayed fear on their faces and hurried upstairs.
“Don’t panic,” Akanis said. “Just big bats; the Silvany bats are quite large.”
Before he could finish, the tavern door was kicked open with great force.
A bald man clad in black armor walked in, his skin as pale as a corpse, with bat-wing decorations on his armor.
Behind him, four silent armored black horses pulled a black carriage resembling a tomb, stopping in front of the tavern. Ji Ma also saw several black-armored knights surrounding the tavern.
The pale bald man glanced left and right, then strode to the bar, grabbing the trembling bartender with one hand.
“Have you seen a witch hunter? Square-faced, black-eyed?”
“I have, I have.” The bartender pointed to Ji Ma and Akanis’s table and said, “They’re right there.”
“They?”
The bald man followed his pointing finger, looking toward Ji Ma and Akanis’s table, and immediately sensed something was off; his eyes glowed red as he scolded, “Who’s hiding there?”
“Run!”
Akanis immediately threw the silver knife toward the bald man. He had just boasted of being a cat, yet now he ran like a mouse.
Ji Ma’s figure had long vanished without a trace; she had sensed something was wrong and slipped away. Utilizing her dream, she easily escaped to a place at least two hundred meters away from the tavern. She emerged from the owner’s bedroom, invisibly flew to the rooftop, and looked down at the tavern.
Indeed, the midnight nobility had come knocking, with an imposing appearance.
Before the tavern, a smoothly surfaced black carriage was parked, with black-armored knights wearing bat-winged helmets riding skeletal horses, surrounding the tavern, while semi-transparent souls wielding scythes guarded every window. A swarm of small bat-sized creatures circled above the tavern.
Among the bats, a white bat demon the size of the carriage flapped its wings. Ji Ma had heard that such bat demons were transformed from uncontrolled vampires.
For vampires, who preferred to overwhelm enemies with numbers, this was nothing short of an elite army, even if used to kill a renowned witch hunter, it could be seen as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
One could only wonder what mischief Akanis had caused yet again.
Ji Ma flapped her wings and melded into the night, flying towards the sky. She had no intention of leaving or saving Akanis; the trouble was of his making, and she had no desire to risk her life.
But she could watch, to see if Akanis could escape.
The army of the midnight nobility was evidently well-prepared, the black carriage hung with green light, each black knight carried a green lantern, even the souls wielding double-scythes were holding green lamps, casting a green glow over the entire tavern.
From her aerial invisibility, Ji Ma could see Akanis’s figure manifesting in the green glow. Instantly, all the bats screamed and dove toward him, while the black knights silently raised their swords, galloping toward Akanis on their skeletal steeds.
The tavern’s walls crashed down, and a shadow, nearly indistinct, rushed out to join the assault on Akanis.
However, the siege lasted for less than half a minute, when a distant roar from the bald man echoed:
“Where is he?”
Ji Ma scanned quickly from the air and spotted Akanis.
At that moment, Akanis was engulfed in green demonic fire, exceptionally conspicuous in the night, flickering between shadows here and there, leaping down from a five-meter-high city wall and running extremely fast. Even the dogs felt guilty and lowered their heads upon seeing him.
What Ji Ma could see, the midnight nobility could see as well.
The bald man, using the bats’ vision, spotted the fleeing Akanis and shouted in rage, “He runs faster than a mouse.”
With that, he jumped up and landed on top of the black carriage. The ghostly driver reined in the horses, whose hooves erupted in green fire, making silent roars as they trampled the air, ascending with the carriage into the sky.
The black bat swarm followed behind the black carriage like a shadow cloud, just as the dark clouds parted to reveal the red moon.
The black carriage soared through the air, carrying the bald man, followed by the black swarms of bats, crossing the moon towards Akanis…
