Who betrayed me and leaked my whereabouts? Was it Danlier, Rovette, a tracker inside the newly bought curling iron, or that cup of strawberry smoothie?
The only traitor Felix could be certain of was the strawberry smoothie. Her stomach had begun to ache—she really shouldn't have consumed anything cold these past few days.
She wasn't particularly anxious. Although this pursuit had come as a surprise, when you have faced assassination at least once a month since childhood and could duck under a bed or into a wardrobe within three seconds of waking, you would probably grow numb to danger as well.
Still, this time was genuinely troublesome. She hadn't expected Beverly's side to actually enlist the notorious Vandell Gang. Throughout the Starry Kingdom, the Vandell Gang was one of the three great gangs, backed by numerous Guard Nobles. The ugly, stupid six-lamp masks on their faces were clearly modified from the Bulwark Legion's Abyss Surveillance Helmet Model I1, equipped with detection functions for air, heat, dust, bloodstains, and more.
There were no gangs in Jialesi; or rather, the more nobles an area had, the less possible it was for gangs to take shape. The strongholds of the three great gangs were all resource-rich cities with vast territory but few nobles. Ordinary people knew very little about them. Even in cities where gangs ran most rampant, it was extraordinarily difficult for commoners to cross paths with gang members, because harming the public was equivalent to declaring war on the nobility.
Nobles must protect the populace, and the populace submits to noble rule—such was the law of the stars. Therefore, from their very inception, the gangs' clients and targets were one and the same group: nobles.
Gangs were tools for nobles to eliminate dissidents within their own ranks. There was an intriguing dynamic here: ordinary citizens' lives and safety fell under the jurisdiction of the Police Department, which existed in every town and city; the lives and safety of noble scions were the responsibility of the House of Nobles, but the House of Nobles only existed in Jialesi.
The immense security vacuum created by this gap was precisely where the gangs operated. Because of the Blessing of the Stars, Starry Nobles were entirely incapable of committing crimes, nor could they naturally "instruct" others to commit crimes. However, a noble's family members, children, and friends were not bound by the Blessing of the Stars.
Wherever there are people, there is competition; wherever there are people, there are factions. Even though Starry Nobles were constrained within legal bounds in all their actions, factional struggles persisted, and direct conflicts of interest naturally followed. After all, power was finite—if you had more, I inevitably had less, and targeted suppression was par for the course.
Not being able to commit crimes didn't mean one couldn't exile someone loathsome to a rural township for life. If the target was incompetent, the rationale was, "You should stay where your talents can be put to use." If the target was capable, it became, "Use your talents to build a better society."
Watching your own family members on the verge of losing a power struggle—bringing a steep decline in status and privileges for the whole household—when you were a sorcerer wielding power, who could resign themselves to it? Yet it was worth noting that even if you committed crimes for the sake of your noble family member, you could never let that noble catch the slightest whiff of it. As a noble, he was duty-bound to report all criminal activity without exception; not even family could be spared.
Every gang's eventual fate was destruction upon being discovered and reported by noble relatives—without exception.
Thus, gangs were unique organizations that parasitized nobility and lurked in society's shadows. They neither interfered with societal production nor let themselves be known to the nobles. They were invisible, mobilizing solely for power—like the darkness behind the stars, unseen by anyone.
In border cities, struggles between gangs could even dictate the transfer of a city's power. Whichever faction's backed gang prevailed, that faction would take charge of the city. The losers' fate was to perish in home-invasion robberies, the crime scenes cordoned off by the Police Department while awaiting lengthy investigations by the House of Nobles.
Initially, the primary backbone of the gangs consisted of noble relatives. Over time, however, gang composition grew increasingly complex. Many sorcerers who had failed to secure noble titles joined the fray: the ambitious sought to forge a shadow ruling system, the weak sought protection, and the inherently cruel vented repulsive desires forbidden by an orderly society.
Felix sometimes wondered whether the Royal Court and the Church had deliberately left this loophole of noble internecine conflict open to draw in naturally wicked and radical sorcerers. After all, noble titles were limited in number; there were always sorcerers unwilling to receive the Blessing of the Stars, always sorcerers unable to reach safe harbor, and those sorcerers refused to take jobs in private enterprises. To society, they were pure liabilities—dangerous elements difficult to control.
A hopeless failure was a terrifying thing, whether commoner or sorcerer.
The raison d'être of the gangs was to give these wicked sorcerers a place to belong, encouraging them to squander their lives in meaningless death matches and minimizing their negative impact on society as much as possible.
The Vandell Gang was just such a syndicate of wicked sorcerers. In their home city, the Vandell Gang ruled supreme; every noble family had to become entangled with them, deep-rooted yet quiet. The nobles themselves would never imagine that the reason they could hold their positions securely was in no small part thanks to their wives.
Yet this was the gang's limit. Gangs were fiercely territorial and exclusive; occupying multiple cities was out of the question.
However, power itself was a resource. A colossal dark force like a gang naturally became a tool to be leveraged by other noble families. Yet transactions involving gangs did not deal in gold, silver, or material wealth—unexplained windfalls of massive wealth would arouse noble suspicion just the same—but rather in "pillow talk" and "letters of recommendation."
Felix had no idea what Beverly had promised to make the Vandell Gang dispatch more than a dozen Two-Winged Sorcerers to hunt her down. Still, currying favor with the wife of the Duke of Vosroda alone was enough to make the Vandell Gang go all out.
Watching the Vandell thugs begin inspecting passengers and searching under seats, Felix silently calculated the disparity between friend and foe: five gun sorcerers, two sword sorcerers, two fist-and-claw sorcerers, and two unknown sorcerers guarding each end of the carriage... I'm on a speeding train, with no hope of rescue from the sect... My stomach hurts so much...
I can win.
Although Felix was only a Two-Winged Sorcerer herself, the reason she had left Jialesi this time was precisely to claim another exceptionally precious inheritance left by her mother. She just hadn't expected Beverly to seize the opportunity and send the Vandell Gang to ambush her on the return train.
Ever since she was five years old, that woman had tried to eliminate this bastard child. No one understood better than Felix how much she shouldn't exist. Her birth was a mistake from the beginning; she was the disgrace of Vosloda. Aside from her callous father and foolish elder brother, everyone in the family cursed her to die as soon as possible.
Yet ever since that day at age five when she gripped a pair of scissors and turned the tables on the maid who tried to strangle her, getting blood splashed across her face, then calmly changed into fresh underwear by herself, she knew that if she wanted to pray for peace, she had to fight against those who prayed for peace just as desperately.
Her life was not composed of love, sweets, and spices; mountains of corpses and seas of blood were the only scenery familiar to her.
By now, the Vandell thugs were approaching her row of seats. Felix's mind worked rapidly as she glanced at the two men to her left and right.
To her left was a sickly-looking, handsome blond man wearing a faint trace of perfume; to her right was an unremarkable, black-haired man wearing a mask. Needing a meat shield, the answer was obvious: go with the right.
It wasn't that Felix was fixated on looks, but rather that the one on the right seemed far better built to take a beating. She gave a quick pinch to both sides' thighs, waists, arms, and pecs—the right side won in every category. She liked them on the sturdier side.
And for some reason, when touching the right side, her stomach ache eased considerably.
How strange. Felix had only heard that Legendary Sorcerers could unconsciously emanate sorcery power auras—some instilled terror, some compelled submission, so it wouldn't be surprising if a Legendary aura offered healing.
Yet compared to the odds of bumping into a Legendary Sorcerer by picking someone at random on a train, Felix was more inclined to believe the guy next to her was an addict hooked on painkillers, allowing her to absorb some of the medicinal effects just by touching him.
Seeing the Vandell man step closer, Felix suddenly pursed her lips and spat out a silver needle aimed at the six-lamp mask. It immediately triggered a defensive miracle and detonated against the mask, bursting into a cloud of blue mist that enveloped the thug's head!
Miracle: Blue Poison Mist!
The instant the thug's face was corroded through by the toxic mist and he screamed in agony, Felix grabbed the black-haired man by the scruff of his neck, thrust him forward as a shield, and charged ahead—not only bowling over the thug in front, but barreling straight toward the others!
"She's behind him!"
"Don't shoot blindly! Watch out! Felix is the only target!"
The thugs roared amidst the chaotic gunfire, but the attacks practically all grazed past the black-haired man, leaving Felix completely unharmed.
Funny enough, despite being called a gang, these thugs didn't dare harm an ordinary citizen, whereas Felix could shamelessly use a civilian as a human shield without the slightest compunction.
If only Felix died, it would be an internal matter for the House of Nobles, subject to investigations of indefinite length. But if a commoner died—and died on a train, no less—it fell squarely under the Police Department's jurisdiction, and the Vandell Gang would certainly have to pay through the nose to produce an acceptable scapegoat.
The sword sorcerers and fist-and-claw sorcerers attempted to flank around and attack Felix, but she merely sneered as an unfamiliar two-winged sorcery spirit manifested above her shoulder.
It appeared as a woman in a black dress, her wings formed of withered black roses. When it emerged, the temperature throughout the entire carriage dropped by several degrees.
As she flapped her wings, large patches of black lesions suddenly erupted across the skin of the thugs closing in on Felix. Shrieking in torment, they collapsed to the floor, rolling and clawing frantically as their wounds rapidly ulcerated and oozed pus!
"Defensive miracles... didn't trigger!"
"Careful, the Vosloda brat still has... a trump card..."
Seeing the terrified looks on the Vandell gang members' faces, Felix felt a surge of exhilaration. This was the inheritance she had just received—the Malice sorcery spirit!
As long as malice directed at a specific target was generated, the Malice sorcery spirit bypassed all defensive miracles to act directly upon the enemy. The only drawback was its extremely short casting range. With this sorcery spirit, Felix was virtually invincible against anyone below the Sanctuary realm in close-quarters combat!
Chapter 760