Herbert always felt that the world shouldn’t be like this; girls at this age should be attending school or working part-time, enjoying their beautiful youth.
Instead, they were sold for a few copper coins to some unknown entity and turned into emotionless human communication devices.
Looking at the Caged Girl next to him, who had just shown a flicker of emotional response, Herbert couldn’t help but smile wryly, realizing he had developed feelings of sympathy.
If it were the past during the Augustus era, seeing such an intriguing human communication device, he would have likely toyed with it just like those nobles accompanying An Zhu. However, after working for a while in Cape, Herbert surprisingly felt that it was wrong to do so; the world shouldn’t be like this.
After this small incident, Herbert lost interest in wandering around the factory district.
Seeing Herbert’s disinterest, the noble accompanying him felt it inappropriate to say anything and politely took his leave.
Herbert took advantage of the noble’s departure to ask the Caged Girl about her past family, hoping that her previous emotional hints might help her recall more.
Unfortunately, the Caged Girl remained as dull as before. After sighing, Herbert began to doubt what foolish things he was doing.
In the following days, Herbert did not treat the Caged Girl as merely an object like other nobles did; he treated her as a living person and shared meals with her and went out together.
Although some nobles mocked Herbert for his foolishness, since he was wealthy, they merely regarded it as his personal quirk, and nobles generally respected others’ preferences.
After losing interest in the factory district, Herbert logically began to wander around the War God Church district, appearing as if he wanted to convert to the War God Church. With his generous spending, he quickly received a warm welcome from the church.
The War God Church district looked the same as usual, but after Herbert finished his round, he fell silent.
Something was wrong, increasingly wrong. Previously, Herbert thought some heretics or cultists had occupied parts of the War God Church districts, causing the followers there to become stranger.
But after digging deeper, he realized there seemed to be an issue with the state of the War God himself.
Although divine revelations usually were vague, their general direction could still be determined. Most of those confusing divine revelations were the result of religious leaders manipulating them for various reasons.
However, recently, the intervals between divine revelations from the War God had become increasingly short, and even after manipulation by the religious leadership, Herbert could feel these revelations were contradictory—one moment calling for war and the next discouraged it. The War God Church had to interpret this as the War God wishing to end war through war.
Herbert felt he needed to leave An Zhu immediately; otherwise, he felt he wouldn’t be able to last much longer.
After reaching An Zhu’s base, Herbert habitually resumed chatting with the Caged Girl beside him.
“The War God Church is becoming stranger and stranger. What do you think? Is there something wrong with the War God himself or the Divine Kingdom?”
Leaning back in the rocking chair, he casually chatted with the girl who resembled a doll.
Although it could be considered blasphemous, it did not involve any highly charged issues, as Herbert was simply commenting from the perspective of a visiting heretic.
His time spent with the Caged Girl was short; although her responses were usually of little value, gradually, Herbert began to treat her as a companion for casual conversation.
“War God… War God…”
Upon hearing this question, the Caged Girl finally responded.
“War God… has changed.”
Herbert immediately stopped rocking in his chair.
“I… saw the Divine Kingdom.”
The Caged Girl, unaware of the sudden change within her, began to speak more fluently.
In that instant, Herbert jumped up from his rocking chair, hurriedly closed the curtains, and tapped on the wall to send a signal to the guard outside, covering the Caged Girl’s mouth.
The outside guard received the signal and after a brief patrol, tapped the wall at a specific spot with his weapon, indicating there was no problem.
Only then did Herbert release his grip, signaling the Caged Girl to continue.
“The War God… the Divine Kingdom has turned dark.”
“The War God has turned dark? What do you mean you can see the Divine Kingdom? Do you now have your own consciousness?”
Herbert asked a series of questions, but soon realized he was too impatient.
Taking a deep breath, he moderated his tone and patiently asked, “You can see the Divine Kingdom? Really?”
“We… communicate through the Divine Kingdom.”
“The War God… wishes to… descend.”
Herbert felt a buzzing in his mind.
Had his Caged Girl undergone a transformation? Or did other Caged Girls know this secret? If it was the latter, Herbert felt he wouldn’t survive leaving An Zhu.
The Caged Girl before him still appeared dazed, but she tugged at Herbert’s clothing as if speaking with urgency, saying, “Run…”
….
When the security guards of An Zhu arrived at Herbert’s residence, they found it already deserted.
“Search! Don’t let a single rat escape!”
Having said that, the security guards rushed into Herbert’s luxurious mansion in An Zhu, searching everywhere.
These guards weren’t genuinely trying to catch anything incriminating; it was just a directive from above to keep Herbert, the big prize, within their territory. Word had come through that war was imminent, and some remaining big prizes were to be brought down, especially someone like Herbert who could smuggle weapons, would be very useful to control.
However, when the officer in charge of the security detail discovered Herbert’s residence had already been evacuated, he immediately realized something was wrong.
The officer had been waiting outside for a long time, but this time the search took even longer than usual.
“Did you find anything?”
The officer stood upright, inquiring about the busy guards around him.
The captain of the guards showed a fawning smile and said, “Sir, that Herbert left behind quite a bit of valuables; our men can’t finish searching them all. Here, this is a share for you!”
Saying that, the captain called over other guards, who rolled in a box filled with various jewelry and gems, along with a box full of gold coins.
“So, you’re saying your searches were only for these?”
The officer felt his blood pressure rising steadily.
“Yes, sir, that Herbert sure is wealthy! Don’t worry, the big share is all yours; I’ll just have a little soup with my brothers.”
“Fool!”
The officer slapped the captain away.
“Is this a matter of money? The other side retreated early, clearly indicating they have special channels of information and are guilty! They are spies! Do you understand? You still want to search for the treasures that the other side deliberately left behind? Issue an order for a nationwide manhunt for that smuggler immediately!”
