The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 172

Chapter 173
You Betrayed the Noble Red

Tommy wasn’t in the interrogation room, nor was he in prison doing time on the treadmill. He was very carefully confined to a secret basement within the Inspection Bureau’s Red Queen District. His hands were cuffed with glowing shackles, and a seal that shimmered with silvery-white radiance had been branded onto his bare back. He wore nothing but a pocketless pair of shorts on his entire body.

The Upper Demon Tommy had contracted was dispatched by the Grand Guardian in ten minutes. After being confined, he was thoroughly searched, ensuring he had no accessories or materials on him—they even opened his mouth to meticulously check for hidden dentures. As a Demon Scholar, he should have been disarmed. But even so, the Law Masters had placed a firm seal on him, rendering his internal Mana unusable. The same light-attribute Mana that could heal others and disperse darkness in the hands of a Priest became a tool of binding and sealing in the hands of Law Masters.

Although Tommy had surrendered without hesitation before the Grand Guardian, he knew he couldn’t escape the moment he saw him. If Tommy had tried to flee then, he would have likely been caught by the Gryphon waiting in observation. He might even have been pursued by the Grand Guardian himself, riding the Gryphon. He couldn’t even defeat the Grand Guardian without a Gryphon, let alone one with it. Even if he had escaped, he would have become a wanted fugitive. After all, he wasn’t an unknown individual; “Tommy Lloyd” was a household name throughout the Lloyd District. His physique was also hardly suited for stealth.

Most importantly, he didn’t want to die. The coldness and fury in the Grand Guardian’s eyes had terrified him. If he hadn’t surrendered then, even if he hadn’t been killed but merely defeated or injured, he would have been killed by Meg’s Word Spirit. But his surrender wasn’t a desire for a quicker death; it was because he was confident he could survive.

He held too many cards in his hand. Tommy was absolutely certain that Boka knew far less than he did—not even a tenth of what he knew. He had taken charge of the most crucial parts of the work himself, all in preparation for this moment. He knew too many people’s secrets: at least two-thirds of the knights in the entire Round Table Hall had directly or indirectly sought his financial support, and he had meticulously preserved evidence of at least eighty percent of it. He also knew the locations and ciphers of the Noble Red Society’s outposts across Avalon. He knew where and what work the spies who had infiltrated were currently engaged in. He also knew which knights or which members of knightly families were in contact with spies from Star Antinomy or the Iris Flower. He knew which important figures had committed great sins… He had preserved this evidence in various locations as well.

Setting that aside, he was at the very least a Demon Scholar at the peak of the Fourth Tier. With just one Advancement Ritual, he could ascend to the Fifth Tier. He could even guarantee a specific person’s advancement to the Fifth Tier during the ritual—the failure of a Fourth Tier advancement could severely damage the soul, or even be life-threatening. There weren’t many Fifth Tier powerhouses in all of Avalon. But his strong physique could withstand the ritual’s backlash. The birth of numerous Fifth Tier Extraordinary individuals would also be meaningful; even if he advanced himself, it wouldn’t matter, as he was a Demon Scholar without a Contract Demon, thus harmless in a sense.

Regardless of whether he succeeded in his own advancement, he could serve as a living Transcendent Path detector. As long as the authorities sent suspects over, he could determine if they possessed the Transcendent Path. He was simply too useful, in every sense of the word. It was precisely because of this that Tommy became defiant after being imprisoned. He was certain that once he revealed all this, the Inspection Bureau would have to consider carefully. And to keep him alive, they would have Meg lift the Word Spirit.

Although Tommy was sealed, he could at least commit suicide, preventing the Law Masters from searching his memories—the final power of a Demon Scholar was to sacrifice themselves to summon a Demon. Not to mention, he knew too many secrets, so many that Tommy himself couldn’t recall them all and would need to rely on texts and passcodes he had hidden in various places to analyze them. Memory searches could only retrieve recent sights and sounds, but “thoughts” and “skills” could not be seen. This meant no one knew his passcodes, and even if they obtained encrypted documents, deciphering them wouldn’t be easy. This was Tommy’s preparation specifically against the memory searches of Law Masters.

If he were killed, these secrets would be lost forever. He threatened them thus. Consequently, the situation devolved into a familiar one for Tommy—a game of wits, or rather, a negotiation. If he didn’t cooperate, he would be cursed to death by Meg; but if he died, Avalon would lose a vast amount of precious clues, and Avalon couldn’t find a more valuable source of information. Many secrets were known only to him, and memory searches couldn’t uncover them all. This meant Tommy’s death was a scenario neither side desired. However, he was carrying a bomb that would kill him in three days if not disarmed, and the Inspection Bureau held the initiative regarding this.

The two sides were locked in a game of cat and mouse. The Inspection Bureau didn’t want Tommy dead, but they had to use this threat to extract more information. Tommy knew he was extremely valuable and that the Inspection Bureau didn’t want him dead, so he held firm, determined to extract more benefits. This was Tommy’s comfort zone; he excelled at games of strategy.

Tommy didn’t demand the Word Spirit be lifted. Instead, he requested a parole of at least thirty days. If the Inspection Bureau agreed, he would reveal three recent secrets, including the disappearance of Eivass, as their first transaction. As a sign of sincerity from both sides and to prove his claims, he asked the Director of the Inspection Bureau who came to interrogate him if she disliked any knights.

After she provided the names of three knights who were openly hostile to the Queen, Tommy unhesitatingly revealed their crimes and the locations where the evidence was stored. “This is a sample,” Tommy’s eyes gleamed with cunning. “Feel free to test if what I’m saying is true. If possible, slightly loosen the noose around my neck, Madam Meg… I’ll be even more valuable.”

The Inspection Bureau, however, was not to be trifled with. If they wanted more, the initiative in the negotiation couldn’t fall into Tommy’s hands. So, they confined him to an absolutely secure basement, intending to leave him there for a while. One day had already passed; Tommy had two days left to live. When he had only a day or half a day left, even if he knew the score, he would surely become anxious. Despite Tommy’s current calm and cunning, once his blood pressure rose, his Giant bloodline would cloud his judgment. It would be best to discuss cooperation then.

There was no food, no light, not even anyone to talk to. Tommy was sealed in a dark, silent cell. It was a very effective method of interrogation. Now, more than half a day had passed, and he had lost track of time. He even felt like three days had already passed, or that time was about to run out… The fear in his heart conjuredhallucinations, childhood memories playing like slides. The people he had seen and killed appeared before him like phantoms. Their voices, their laughter, their dying wails echoed in his ears. Tommy curled up on the bed, eyes open, motionless.

Tommy was a mixed-blood Giant from three generations down. Simultaneously, he was also a half-elf. The Giant bloodline within him was only one-eighth, while his elven bloodline was one-quarter. Logically, he should have been merely a temperamental half-elf. But by his generation, the dormant Giant bloodline had unexpectedly awakened, becoming exceptionally active. Before his birth, his father had disappeared; his mother remarried after giving birth to him, only to die of illness less than two years later. When Tommy was three years old, he had no blood relation to his parents. Yet, his father continued to raise him. It wasn’t until he was five years old that, unable to control his burgeoning rage, he kicked through his grandmother’s knee. After being severely beaten by his unrelated stepfather, he was abandoned in the Lloyd District.

At that time, the Noble Red had not yet entered Glass Island, so there weren’t many Demon Scholars in the Lloyd District in desperate need of materials. Thus, he wouldn’t be immediately dissected into man-shaped, walking materials. Although the hearts, bone marrow, livers, and kidneys of mixed-blood Giants could be used as rare alchemical materials—for Giant Strength Potions, Berserker Potions, potent miscarriage-prevention medicine, and long-lasting stimulants, respectively. A five-year-old Giant looked very much like an ordinary human child, and no one would suspect he was a mixed-blood Giant.

However, an adult carrying valuable goods would likely be in danger if abandoned in the Lloyd District; but a child in the Lloyd District was actually quite safe. Here, children were commodities, essential materials for training assassins. Strong, intelligent, and agile children were especially so. At that time, Madam Gray Green was only a high-ranking assassin, not yet a manager in this field. But her superior—the “mother” who had raised her since childhood—was. Her “mother” took Tommy in and subjected him to assassin training. However, Tommy lacked the talent for Path Adaptation; the roaring, surging rage within him made it impossible for him to remain silent and still, let alone observe everything calmly in darkness.

Thus, Tommy was abandoned again. Coincidentally, the previous Lloyd needed more adopted sons, and he bought Tommy from her. Including President Lloyd’s own wife, Tommy had seven parents. Yet, he never felt any familial affection. No one knew that Tommy hadn’t been chosen by his foster father to inherit the surname “Lloyd.”

The one with the greatest hope of inheriting “Lloyd” at the time was Tommy’s sister. Of their seven siblings, Tommy ranked fifth. His fourth sister, Rovetta, had an aptitude for the Path of Balance, was intelligent and beautiful, and sufficiently ruthless. By the age of fourteen or fifteen, she had earned a considerable fortune selling oceanic intelligence. By eighteen, she had even befriended a prince; had he not been cursed to death, she might have become a princess.

Even so, she had used the prince’s status to infiltrate Avalon’s high society. With her dignified demeanor, vast knowledge, and refined education, she quickly became a darling of the social scene. By then, she was already the Vice President of the Lloyd Society. Tommy realized he could never surpass her. And once the ritual of “Children of the Serpent” ended, his Path potential would be siphoned away. So, after plotting, he used his research on the ritual to orchestrate a murder. He cursed his sister with a bestial desire, causing her to mate with a bull and be discovered by chance. She chose to commit suicide afterwards.

But she actually failed to commit suicide—Tommy used another female corpse to impersonate her. He brutally raped and sacrificed “Rovetta,” using her and his two younger brothers as sacrifices to summon a Labyrinth Demon. His father didn’t realize this was Tommy’s doing and thus bestowed the Lloyd name upon him. To prevent him from retaliating later, Tommy dragged his father into the labyrinth and starved him to death. The Inspection Bureau had suspected him at the time, but no evidence could be found. Their bodies were either in the Labyrinth Demon’s maze or had melted upon entering the Dream Realm. Their corpses were not in the Material Realm, nor did they die in the Material Realm.

Following this, Tommy, who was only sixteen at the time, wisely realized he needed to perfect the chain of evidence to clear his name. He fabricated evidence of his two younger brothers stealing family property, buying ship tickets, and killing their older siblings, severely injuring him. After Tommy was willing to pay the price of being shot six times in the body with a handgun, the disappearance of his two younger brothers became perfectly reasonable. As for his murdered older siblings—that, of course, was his own doing.

He didn’t believe he had done anything wrong. The ritual of “Children of the Serpent” itself permitted, even encouraged, mutual slaughter; what was forbidden was Avalon’s law. Hence, he both completed the ritual and circumvented the law. As for killing—he wasn’t human, after all. Tommy remained quite calm about it. The first time he killed, he felt no discomfort, even experiencing excitement and thrill. He even consoled himself: since those people viewed him as a Giant, it was no issue for him to kill. It was this thrill that sometimes led him to wander the Lloyd District at night, hunting those foolish enough to roam the streets after dark, turning them into ritual materials… and then cursing those he wanted dead during the day. It wasn’t until he grew taller than the common human height that he stopped roaming.

He almost got discovered at one point, but fortunately, “Jack the Ripper” appeared later. He generously took the blame for Tommy’s crimes as well. Later, Tommy was targeted by the Noble Red Society. Speaking of the Noble Red… Tommy’s brow suddenly furrowed. …Come to think of it, has the Inspection Bureau prepared any countermeasures against curses for me? If he betrayed the Noble Red, they would likely come to curse him to death. They could easily obtain his hair, and even without knowing his location, they could curse him. In that case, his list of demands should also include “assigning a Priest to accompany and protect me.” If he were cursed, they should dispel it in time… From this perspective, perhaps requesting a female Priest would be better.

Just then, he suddenly heard faint footsteps. This caused his stagnating thoughts to become active once more. A second person appeared in the dark cell. His first reaction was joy—but immediately after, he grew vigilant. Why hadn’t the other person lights? Why did they approach without a word? So, Tommy also closed his mouth warily, flipped himself over to sit up, his muscles tensing. Although he couldn’t use his Path Power, his body was still quite healthy. He had surrendered in time and wasn’t injured. Even if shot at with firearms, he could clamp his Giant muscles around bullets to survive.

“—Your Excellency Tommy Lloyd.” A low, hoarse voice echoed. “Is that so?” “…It is me.” Tommy asked in a deep voice, “Who are you?” The next moment, Tommy saw a flash of red light. It was the ring, “Noble Red,” which he was familiar with. Are they coming to save me? …No, that’s not right. “You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?” Tommy replied confidently, sitting on the bed. “You are Alistair—Who exactly are you? If you intend to kill me, at least let me hear your true voice.”

After a brief silence, a soft, sweet, honey-like female voice spoke, “Yes, I am here to kill you. “—Because you betrayed the Noble Red.” As her words fell, Tommy’s entire body was penetrated by a Shadow Demon. But he let out no cry of pain, as something coiled around his neck. At this moment, he used his blood-stained fingers to write on the bed: “Alistair,” “Woman,” “Noble Red.” —If I die, you’re not getting out of this easily. Tommy thought resentfully.

A chapter of 4,700 words. Another update of over 7,000 words today!