Lanqi's Encounter with the Mafia Boss

"This is bad." Looking at Viscount Carmel in his grasp, Lanqi smacked his forehead as if suddenly remembering something. "What should I do now..." His brow furrowed slightly as he murmured to himself. "What's wrong?" Talia was startled, wondering what major issue they had overlooked. Ever since she started following Lanqi around, she had hardly used her brain. Even things like remembering to bring her keys when leaving the house were no longer on her mind—Lanqi took care of everything for her. "I left in such a hurry; I really should have brought a twenty-eight-inch rolling suitcase," Lanqi explained to Talia. "...What do you need a suitcase for?" Talia asked through telepathy, bewildered. "A twenty-eight-inch rolling suitcase can fit an adult male just right," Lanqi said, glancing down at Viscount Carmel to enlighten Talia. That would have made transporting the cargo back much more convenient. "..." Talia thought to herself that if this weren't the empire, she would have called the police. However, she needed to concentrate on knocking this Blood Clan member completely unconscious without exerting too much mana—to the point where he wouldn't wake for days unless actively roused. She couldn't be bothered to waste words on Lanqi right now. Members of the Blood Clan were tougher than roaches, impossible to kill off for good. It was truly difficult for an ordinary Tier 6 to defeat such undead creatures. Clouds in the sky gathered and parted, obscuring the moon before releasing it once more, while wind swept through the dark alley as if slicing through the air. With the short days and long nights of autumn, the hour had grown late before anyone realized it. Vision was as murky as though smeared with ink, making it impossible to see far ahead. Yet at this moment, within the container yard of the Brierda Mafia, the black-haired, purple-eyed girl cradling the cat was no longer as panicked as before. She had calmed down. Following Professor Landry, Ursula walked up beside Elsa. "Elsa, it's alright now," Lanqi comforted, looking toward Elsa. "Wuu-wuu... Brother, I was so worried you wouldn't be able to beat him," Elsa sobbed, as if her pent-up tension had suddenly been released. She tilted her head back and wept aloud. She had thought she almost got her brother killed. "That's great..." Relief surfaced in Ursula's eyes, yet an undercurrent of loneliness accompanied it. She could only look away and let out a soft sigh. Seeing the way Elsa and her brother interacted reminded Ursula of her own elder brother, and her chest tightened with an aching pain. She didn't know what she had done wrong to make her brother despise her from the bottom of his heart. All she knew was that whether friendship or kinship, feelings changed over time; once estrangement set in, it could never be undone. "Don't worry, I'm the strongest," Lanqi confidently reassured Elsa. His current persona was High Priest Loren disguised as Professor Landry, so it didn't hurt for Loren to act a bit arrogant. With Loren's trait of growing stronger the more he fought, putting on an air of supreme arrogance—the unrivaled lord beneath the heavens—only made the act more faithful to the persona. "..." Talia felt that back when Lanqi had played Loren in the City of Flowers, Palieu, he had already begun rewriting Loren's persona. Although Lanqi's 1798 edition of Loren was indeed far more domineering with the aura of royal conquest, she had always believed that the real Loren wasn't like that. Unfortunately, Loren himself wasn't in any position to raise objections now, leaving Lanqi free to unleash his interpretation across the Creti Empire. Behind Lanqi, Ursula looked at him standing motionless. She shot him several glances, as if urging him on. "What is it?" Lanqi naturally noticed Ursula's gaze. "Don't you think an older brother ought to go over and pat his little sister's head at a time like this?" Ursula asked him, speechless. She had heard Elsa say that Landry had developed a sense of distance lately. His sense of responsibility was genuine without a doubt, yet he wouldn't easily get close to anyone. Even his sister Elsa felt as if a wall stood between them, almost as if they weren't even blood siblings. Could this guy be an absolute iron-headed straight man? "Whether it's patting the head or touching the back of a female student, neither is permitted—that would cross the line into sexual harassment. However, I can listen to her speak and comfort her in spirit. Such is the code of conduct for teachers," Lanqi explained with a smile to Ursula beside him. "You really are full of professionalism, treating even your own sister the same," Ursula remarked, her expression torn between sarcasm and amusement. "Of course. At Saint Creti Monastery, you are all my students. I won't show favoritism to anyone," Lanqi nodded. "...Well aren't you just wonderfully noble," Ursula murmured after a pause. "Naturally. The school where I previously taught gave me a hundred percent approval rating in student surveys," Lanqi replied proudly. He stopped chatting with Elsa and Ursula and turned his attention back to Viscount Carmel dangling in his hand. At this moment, Talia was possessing him, using his body to cast mental magic upon Viscount Carmel. After this brief moment, she had probably dealt with Viscount Carmel quite thoroughly. "Then why can you touch me whenever you please?" Talia asked through telepathy, sounding thoughtful as her mind lingered on Lanqi's earlier remark. She had indeed noticed that Lanqi never touched others. But back in the Kingdom of Posen, when they were competing with each other, their hands had ended up clasped, and later she felt like he had simply gotten used to it. "Pfft... Master, do you honestly think putting on a short-skirt school uniform in Ikerite made you an actual student?" Lanqi couldn't hold it in this time and burst into laughter. "Consider your real age—you're lucky I haven't reported you for sexual harassment... I was wrong!" Before he could finish his sentence, he was immediately apprehended by Talia. With a cold, invisible hand, Talia gripped his heart. "I will never wear that short skirt again in my life, and don't you dare bring it up again," she grumbled, releasing her hold on Lanqi's heart. Just thinking about that week when she wore a school uniform alongside Lanqi, walking to and from Ikerite Academy together every day, made her scalp tingle with embarrassment. Thankfully, they hadn't run into any acquaintances. Thoughts snapped back to reality. "By the way, what exactly happened here? Why would a perfectly fine student of Saint Creti Monastery be targeted by the Blood Clan?" Lanqi asked, looking at Elsa while waiting for Talia to disrupt Viscount Carmel's nervous system. He was fairly certain that Elsa was a human possessing awakened atavistic Wolf Clan blood; otherwise, she wouldn't possess the trait of gaining power at night. Even if the Wolf Clan and the Blood Clan were mortal enemies, Elsa shouldn't have provoked the Blood Clan. Her traits were largely human, making it difficult to distinguish her from ordinary humans, and she herself probably didn't even understand her own Wolf Clan heritage. How on earth had the Blood Clan discovered her? "It... maybe it's..." Elsa sniffled, her eyes darting aside as she hesitated. She didn't want to drag her brother into this. "It's about the banquet at our manor the other day—there's nothing uncertain about it," Ursula said candidly on her behalf, spreading her hands. Everything originated from a banquet hosted by the Roland family. On top of that, Elsa hadn't fully understood what her innate talent magic meant at the time; she had casually activated her Sin-Judging Eye and spotted an anomalous guest at the party. Ursula felt deeply guilty because of this. She believed that all the danger Elsa faced tonight had occurred simply because she had dragged Elsa to the banquet. "Back then, my brother said he would investigate. He promised that if any dangerous elements had slipped into our banquet that night, he would bring them to justice. So I thought it was no big deal," Ursula roughly recounted the circumstances to Lanqi. Looking back on it now, what should have been treated as a grave and perilous incident seemed like nothing more than a trivial misunderstanding in her brother's eyes. Her brother's judgment was clearly fraught with serious errors. It was almost... as if her brother were covering up for the Blood Clan. She couldn't bear to dwell on that thought any further. "Your elder brother—Marquis Ryan, the Amethyst Seat, the Ninth God of War—couldn't track down a single person who snuck into the banquet?" Lanqi asked, looking at Ursula with a puzzled expression. "..." Ursula lowered her head, biting her lip. She had no answer to Professor Landry's question, where every single word weighed as heavy as a thousand jin. If the truth really were a minor, insignificant incident, then the explanation Marquis Ryan gave would naturally be sound. Yet the present outcome made it obvious: the "person" who appeared at the Roland family banquet that day, seen through Elsa's Sin-Judging Eye, was almost certainly of the Blood Clan. "It is my fault. When Elsa told me about what happened back then, I went straight to my brother without a second thought. The danger she's facing is directly tied to our Roland family," Ursula said with a hanging head, her words heavy. She rarely admitted fault. Professor Landry would probably never trust her again, view her and the Roland family as enemies, and perhaps forbid her from ever seeing Elsa again. Even so, she refused to hide anything. "Have you ever felt that your brother had a drastic change in personality at some point over the past two years?" After hearing her out, Lanqi remained calm, resting his chin in his hand as he analyzed the situation. "!" Ursula's head snapped up. She seized Lanqi's coat and stared intently at him, her green eyes filled with astonishment and a thousand unspeakable words. "D-Do you know the reason?" Ursula couldn't understand why this professor's gaze toward her was still filled with trust, nor did she understand how he knew anything about her brother. "Let's get out of here first. We'll talk once we're back at the school," Lanqi nodded seriously to Ursula. He felt that Viscount Carmel would be completely subdued in just another moment. Afterward, they would have to discreetly carry Viscount Carmel through the city and bring him back to Saint Creti Monastery. There could be zero mistakes. Ursula nodded vigorously. Her nerves were strung tight. She had initially thought he was merely an ordinary professor, but now she was increasingly convinced that this professor was shrouded in secrets. The night was as dense as ink, and the wind still howled through the alley. In a breath, the gusts sharpened, fluttering the strands of their hair. "Do you treat this place like your own home? Coming and going as you please?" Suddenly, an unheralded voice echoed from the alley's mouth, like the phantom whisper of the dark night. Elsa and Ursula jumped, looking around in alarm. It wasn't until they followed Professor Landry's line of sight that they noticed a silhouette standing at the far end of the alley, present without them ever knowing when he had arrived. The figure stood quietly in place, his coat fluttering slightly in the wind, almost melting into the surrounding darkness. The moonlight washed over him, carving out a sharp, cold silhouette. Amidst that pitch-black darkness, only a pair of pale blue eyes gleamed with striking brilliance, like two clusters of cold frost flames burning steadily in the dark. "Apologies, we meant no offense!" Lanqi deduced that the master of this turf had tracked them down, and he called out an apology toward that direction. A fight breaking out here offered them zero benefits. A battle at the Tier 7 level was on a completely different scale from one at Tier 6. In the worst-case scenario, the massive commotion might draw the attention of powerhouses from the capital's Imperial Army. "..." The other person did not reply. He merely walked forward at a leisurely pace, the faint scraping sound of metal rubbing against metal reaching the trio's ears. It was the subtle clinking of various blades sheathed at his waist, their cold gleam flickering in and out of the gloom. Gradually, the shadows finally receded from his figure. The newcomer had short, dark gray hair. Beneath sword-sharp eyebrows, his blue eyes held a trace of murkiness, no longer as clear as a youth's, though his face looked under thirty years old. He wore a pitch-black trench robe cinched with a brown leather belt, over a black shirt and vest, with dark red patterns embroidered along the cuffs and hem. It seemed as though he could ignore terrain and stride through any obstacle. "Barton Hall..." Ursula immediately recognized this dangerous figure of Brierda— The boss of the Brierda Mafia. In Brierda, he was the underground emperor who struck terror into smugglers and made the police steer clear. Under that black cloak and trench coat, there were likely nothing but custom-made magic engineering vibration blades. "Professor, he's very strong! He was once an imperial colonel; after leaving the army, he joined the mafia and worked his way up to becoming their leader..." Before her words were finished, the figure of Mafia Boss Barton expanded infinitely in Ursula's pupils. In the very next frame of her perception, Barton was already right in front of them, his movement utterly silent and devoid of windup. His hand shot toward Viscount Carmel dangling in Lanqi's grasp, only to be parried by Lanqi's other hand. "Colonel Barton, could you do us a favor and let this slide? Your men were not killed by us, and my sister was swept here by spatial magic. We had no intention of trespassing," Lanqi said politely. "...Do not call me colonel." Barton's gaze shifted from the Blood Clan viscount to Lanqi's blocking hand, and then to Lanqi's face. His eyes were as sharp as knife blades, bearing a chilling ruthlessness and determined finality, as if capable of penetrating human hearts and stripping away all disguise. He hadn't exerted his full power. He wouldn't casually injure two young girls and a little cat. Moreover, the young man holding the Blood Clan member didn't appear to harbor any clear hostility toward him. "Are you from Saint Creti Academy?" Barton's gaze rested on Lanqi's face for a moment, as though he finally realized why this man had addressed him as colonel. Professor Landry—in today's imperial newspaper, one could see a group photograph of him receiving honors at the Imperial Special Operations Department. Beneath the administrative building of Imperial Special Operations, several secret agent military officers had warmly received the young imperial professor in a gray overcoat, undisguised in their towering authority and bureaucratic aura. Since this professor from Saint Creti Monastery belonged to the Imperial Special Operations Department, he counted as military personnel, and naturally would be aware of some military history. "Leave this Blood Clan viscount behind, and I won't give you trouble. You may go," Mafia Boss Barton said, withdrawing his hand into his jet-black cloak.