Before Annan erged from the secret passage, he had already activated his Curse Binding.
——"The Final Work: David".
The one who entered the secret passage was a nine-year-old child, but the one who erged was a middle-aged man with black hair and eyes, and a kind face with profound features.
"...This height difference is just too cruel."
Being suddenly swapped from the body of young Annan to "Giralda David Buonarroti", Annan felt a mont of dizziness. It was only after walking two more steps in the passage that he finally adjusted.
Essentially, every ti Annan used this spell, he had to adapt to the height change for a while to re-establish a correct sense of space and distance.
Annan walked out of a corner of the garden and made his way towards the kitchen.
It wasn’t because he was hungry... but because when Annan and Kafney had passed this way earlier, soone had given themselves away.
It was a young man with red curly hair and freckles.
When he saw Annan and Kafney passing by, he showed a trace of murderous intent without any good reason.
And at that ti, Annan and Kafney walked by as if nothing had happened, as if they had not noticed at all. Therefore, they should have not spooked the snake in the grass.
But even without ntioning Kafney... with Annan’s own perceptual attributes, the sense of murderous intent at that distance was as clear as high-beam lights in the night.
An important piece of information was that Kafney did not recognize him. This ant he was not one of Noah’s high-ranking officers... yet he could move freely near the kitchen.
And the likelihood of this man being from the Winter Duchy was even smaller. One could almost say it was non-existent.
Thus, from this detail, Annan could ascertain one thing.
——It indicated there was a very serious problem with the royal security system.
Despite being a critical ti — the old king’s birthday and the day the heir to the duchy was visiting — soone Kafney had never seen before managed to slip in...
Annan, making use of his appearance as "David", walked openly on the road as a form of probing.
He wanted to see if soone would stop him.
Forget being mistaken for a high-ranking mber of Noah.
At this point in ti, except for Michelangelo... almost nobody was likely to recognize who "David" was.
And yet, he had managed to pass through without hindrance.
The patrolling guards had indeed noticed Annan. But they rely watched him warily, without questioning his whereabouts. They stopped their conversations and stood still, silently watching as Annan left.
The laxity was simply outrageous.
Annan, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief.
——It just went to prove sothing else.
That is, these royal guards were not the direct force of the Church of Rot. They were clearly instructed by soone to not intercept and question strangers during a certain ti fra.
So, who was it?
The first suspect that ca to Annan’s mind was one person.
——Prince Philip Noah.
The very person who attempted to murder Tan Juan Geraint, and also the master of Captain Claus.
Did he have the authority to command the guards?
Many conjectures floated through Annan’s mind, and most of them were dismissed imdiately.
By that ti, Annan had made his way near the kitchen.
Following Kafney’s indications, Annan deduced that the ritual’s core should be in the kitchen’s basent.
He saw that sneaky red-haired man again.
He was already standing at the kitchen door, arms crossed, anxiously waiting for sothing.
But what surprised Annan was—unlike when he had shown the intent to kill upon seeing Annan and Kafney before, upon seeing David, he actually seed to breathe a sigh of relief.
And there was no hostility.
Realizing this, Annan also calmly walked up to him.
At this distance, Annan could paralyze him with "Lazy Eye" at any mont.
After Annan stopped in front of him, the man whispered, "Why are you so late?
"Two kids just passed by. No more talk, I’m leaving... the rest is up to you."
"Two kids passed by... are you sure everything is okay on your side?"
Annan’s mind raced, and he followed up with so dissatisfaction in his voice.
He was inquiring about sothing the man had just ntioned. This would minimize the man’s guard—had Annan started by suddenly saying, "Oh right, speaking of which..." at their first eting, the man might have beco suspicious of Annan.
Under Annan’s outstanding acting and chatter, the man just said irritably, "As long as neither of those two entered, it’s fine... Hurry up and go. I’ve finished my task here, and I need to leave. If I don’t go now, I won’t be able to get away."
Annan glanced at him and without saying much, walked into the kitchen.
But he had already had an epiphany—
Many pieces of the puzzle snapped into place in Annan’s mind in that instant:
Of course, the guards that were clearly instructed to act odd, Kafney’s mother who had disappeared, and this dubious man daring to stand right in front of the kitchen...
This could only an one thing.
If they were assud to be followers of the Corruption Cult—their infiltration into the higher echelons of Noah was not yet deep at this mont.
To avoid the plan being botched, getting caught alive, or betrayed, each mber knew only their part of the mission. Apart from this, they did not recognize each other nor knew the tasks of the others, only transferring duties through prearranged signals and codes.
There were quite a bunch of people inside the kitchen, all bustling about—near the door were many wooden barrels filled with fish.
Annan looked around.
He noticed that nobody was looking in this direction—not even aware that he had entered the kitchen.
In front of him was the kitchen’s basent.
—But he couldn’t go in now.
The "NPC" who had completed the shift duty couldn’t just disappear into thin air. If Annan had taken over soone else’s identity and had completed the task handover with him... even if Annan had arrived a few minutes before the man, there wouldn’t be much he could do after entering the basent.
After all, ti was limited.
Those two would most likely et each other on their way...
Annan turned his head slightly and looked at the red-haired man who hadn’t gone far.
In "David’s" pupils, a hint of ferocity flickered for an instant.
Without waiting for the red-haired man to leave, Annan silently followed him from behind.
The mont he was close enough, Annan suddenly reached out to cover the man’s mouth, while his other hand pressed against the man’s back, palm turning a bluish-black color in an instant.
—Cold Touch!
The man didn’t have a chance to struggle or even make a sound before he passed out. He probably didn’t know who attacked him until he fell unconscious.
Annan effortlessly hoisted him onto his shoulder and quickly doubled back. He opened a barrel filled with fish and roughly stuffed the man inside. To ensure he wouldn’t wake up midway, Annan also delivered a heavy punch to the back of his head with his marble-like fist.
That should keep him from waking up easily.
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