vncnus Chapter 168 Lorne: I'm gambling
Chapter 168 Lorne: I'm gambling
Chapter 168 Lorne: I'm gambling
Night was falling.
Alger, carrying a heavy black suitcase large enough to fit an adult, arrived at the dilapidated house where Danitz was hiding.
He knocked on the door rhythmically, following the pre-arranged code.
Soon, the door was pulled open a crack from the inside. Danitz cautiously peeked out, and only after seeing that it was Alger did he open the door and let him in.
"How did it go? Was the bounty settled?" Danitz didn't mention the body, but asked directly, his tone full of urgency.
"They've agreed to the exchange." Alger placed the suitcase on the floor, walked into the room, and feigned a troubled expression. "However, the reward amount—is still undecided. They probably intend to offer around five or six thousand pounds."
"Bullshit! That's so little?!" Upon hearing this, Danitz's anticipation instantly plummeted, and he cursed in disappointment, "Was that ten thousand pounds just a joke?"
"After all, the bounty is for a live victim," Alger shrugged. "I'll try my best to get it for you again. But right now..."
I need to take 'Brando's' body with me first to hand it over to their people.
To show his "sincerity" and also to prevent Danitz from becoming suspicious, he took out the thick envelope that Ozl had given him from his pocket and handed it over.
"This is their advance payment, 1,500 pounds. Take it."
Danitz took the heavy envelope and, in front of Alger, opened it and quickly counted the banknotes inside with practiced ease.
Seeing the actual cash, the disappointment on his face eased considerably. Seeing Alger's "sincerity," he didn't say anything more, nodded, and led Alger into the house's side room.
The body of "Brando" was lying on a tattered blanket.
Alger noticed that the spiritual energy in the room was somewhat chaotic, and there seemed to be traces of ritual magic remaining.
"To prevent the corpse from decomposing, I used ritual magic to perform a simple 'preservation'," Danitz explained.
Alger nodded, agreeing with this statement.
Without further ado, the two began packing. Together, they laboriously shoved the somewhat stiff body into the large suitcase Alger had brought.
During the packing process, compared to the excitement for money in Danitz's eyes, Alger felt an indescribable sense of regret.
He recalled that before a certain party, he had bought several pages of Russell's diary of fairly good quality from a young man named Brando, and Mr. "Fool" was quite satisfied with those pages.
Unexpectedly, not long afterward, this seemingly lucky young man...
He still died right before his eyes.
That's how cruel the sea can be.
"If you have someone to blame, blame yourself for offending the wrong person," Alger sighed silently to himself.
He closed and locked the packed box. He then asked Danitz some more details about "Brando," such as his reaction when he later encountered Danitz, how Danitz "captured" him, what his cat was like, and how it ran away.
After confirming that everything was almost ready, he picked up the heavy suitcase and prepared to deliver the goods.
After Alger, carrying the suitcase, completely disappeared from sight, Lorne, who had been hiding in the shadows of the house, quietly emerged.
He pushed the door open and entered.
"How is it?" He looked at Danitz, who was sitting in a chair with a pained expression on his face.
"Damn it! This is outrageous!" Danitz complained immediately upon seeing Lorne. "The corpse will only fetch five or six thousand pounds in bounty at most! That's half of what it used to be!"
"As expected." Lorne didn't react much to this; instead, his expression became somewhat serious.
During his observation, he keenly sensed that something seemed different about Alger.
As a "Catastrophe Priest," he could not only vaguely sense the direction of calamities, but also, to some extent, touch upon a deeper level of so-called "fate." Although this feeling was very faint and almost impossible to grasp.
But just now, he clearly sensed a sense of "disharmony" in Alger.
Is it just my imagination? Or...?
Perhaps due to his limited abilities, Lorne remained silent for a moment, suppressing the thought for the time being. He couldn't let such a thing disturb his mind.
Danitz finished complaining and finally calmed down. He took a swig of his drink, looked at Lorne with a hint of worry on his face, and asked, "Hey, Brando, seriously—what if this plan fails?"
Lorne gave him a warning look, his tone flat: "Want to earn ten thousand pounds with absolutely no risk? There's no such thing as a free lunch."
He said this to Danitz, but it also seemed like he was saying it to Alger.
"That's not what I meant," Danitz sighed. "I meant, if the 'sick girl' finds out the truth, we..."
"That's why I'm gambling," Lorne interrupted him.
He walked to the window, looked at the dark night outside, and said in a cold voice, "I'm betting that Tracy won't find out it's a scam."
Even if I do nothing, once the ten thousand pound bounty has fully spread and news has reached all of Bayam, our situation won't be much better.
He turned around, his glasses gleaming coldly.
"So I have to take this gamble, gamble that we can solve this big problem once and for all."
Bayam, in a dimly lit private room at the Fragrant Leaf Bar.
"Captain—you, you arrived so quickly?"
Misor stared in terror at the figure that had suddenly emerged from the shadows.
Tracy was still wearing that ill-fitting men's coat, looking travel-worn, her black curly hair disheveled from her hurried journey, and her beautiful face was now clouded with gloom.
This was the second time he had seen the captain in this wolf-fox-like state.
He immediately realized that there was only one possibility for the captain to arrive so quickly: after hearing the news, she rushed back from the Black Death at top speed.
"Where is the person who wanted to claim the bounty?" Tracy ignored his surprise and asked coldly.
"It's...it's all arranged." Under that terrifying gaze, Misor trembled. "He—he'll be here in a little while, bringing that Monkey Brando's corpse...corpse."
He stammered the word "corpse," because he could clearly feel that as the word was uttered, the chill emanating from Tracy intensified.
In fact, he had sensed something was amiss ever since he reported to the captain through the mirror. The captain's reaction was nothing like the "happiness" he had expected.
It wasn't the joy of revenge, but rather a kind of suppressed rage about to erupt.
Could it be that I'm wrong? Misor swallowed hard, a chill rising from his heart.
The captain and Brando weren't enemies at all.
Tracy clenched her fist.
She took a deep breath and forcibly restrained her almost out-of-control aura.
She took the dressing mirror from her bosom, handed it to Misor, and commanded in an unquestionable tone:
"When you make the deal with that person, take this with you. I want to hear it for myself."
She paused, and a flash of undisguised, crazed killing intent appeared in her azure eyes.
"If he really killed Brando, then kill him."
"No, make him wish he were dead."