"Lu Li... yes... I rember that na... The legendary exorcist who destroyed Silence..."
Will Ken, his consciousness bound to the parchnt, recalled and whispered.
And Lu Li rembered him, too. Will Ken: a legendary agent from the Ancient Era, a mber of the Exorcist Association, an investigator and night watchman from the ti of the Alliance, the voice from the radio broadcast, now retired.
"Silence wasn't destroyed."
"But it turned into the Hour of Silence, didn't it?"
"Why are you here, and how did you end up like this?" Lu Li asked, unwilling to dwell on his own past.
"That was a long ti ago... in mory and in the passage of ti alike."
Will Ken slowly recounted his tale.
After his only surviving son, Stephen, perished in the bottomless abyss, Will Ken was invited to join the Alliance's radio broadcast. But when the expeditionary force fighting Silence was annihilated—even before Lu Li was lured onto his path by the Rope of Descent—Will Ken left the broadcast and journeyed to that sa bottomless abyss in the Wastelands.
He went to avenge his child. If he failed, at least he could be buried alongside his son.
The long journey across the Wastelands drained the once-venerable old man of his strength. His hopes of revenge unfulfilled, Will Ken inevitably fell into the bottomless abyss.
When Will Ken's consciousness returned, he found himself as a sheet of parchnt lying in his old, mud-soaked rucksack.
"The other contents of my rucksack gradually rotted away, but the parchnt I had beco remained intact, unhard save for the filth."
"For a long ti, unable to die or move, I began to lose myself... Am I truly Will Ken, or am I rely a piece of parchnt that has absorbed the consciousness of an exorcist by that na?"
A sigh concluded his story.
"Is the bottomless abyss connected to the Swamps?" Lu Li asked.
"I don't know... After falling into the abyss, I heard countless whispers. They seed to surround , hiding in the rock walls. Finally, as my strength failed, I heard Stephen's voice... I don't know if it was real."
"Young and great exorcist, you've co for the Cursed Title, haven't you? I'll tell you everything I know..."
"We've been here too long."
Nunes cut them off abruptly, his gaze darting past the low doorway. "The Alliance of Bloodline Families has spotted us. We need to leave."
Nunes took the parchnt and left the hut with Lu Li, returning to the second floor of the general store.
Silence hung in the stuffy room, where the four remaining participants stood clearly apart.
Heinz Ellis of the Council of Nobles leaned against a wall, keeping as much distance from the others as possible. The knight, Pasha Rivas, stood beside Tovani like a bodyguard, while Ida lingered by the coat rack nearest the door.
"Where did you take His Excellency, Lu Li?"
Heinz Ellis was displeased that Nunes had abandoned them.
"Personal business."
"Let us resu our earlier discussion," the knight Pasha Rivas said, giving Lu Li a formal bow. "With Your Excellency Lu Li joining us, the alliance will be able to attract more mbers."
And we won't have to worry about internal strife or betrayal.
"Wait."
Nunes, the one who had proposed the alliance, halted the discussion and handed the parchnt to Lu Li.
After a short pause, Lu Li extended his left hand and took the parchnt.
"There's a hidden exit in the mining district..."
Will Ken's aged voice echoed deep in his mind.
"How do you know that?" Lu Li thought.
"My consciousness can expand... It can spread like air, seep like water, reach out like branches. Perhaps it's a power granted by the parchnt, or perhaps it's so ager ability of my own that has awakened..."
"That's very useful."
"Thank you... You'll be able to leave the mining district through the hidden exit and avoid any conflict... Trust in Will."
As the others glanced at the unremarkable parchnt, Lu Li spoke calmly. "There's a mine shaft beneath the mining district that leads to the outside. We can use it to leave the area without alerting the Alliance of Bloodline Families."
"Flee? But there's no need for that," Heinz Ellis frowned.
On this rare occasion, the knight Pasha Rivas agreed with him: "Our combined strength is enough to crush them and earn the points."
Tovani from the Academy of Giant Trees would follow only Lu Li's decision, while Ida, with her arachnid nature, was an expert at ambushes and sches.
"Gentlen, you're forgetting one thing," Nunes said, shaking his head slightly. "We can count the number of participants here in the mining district, but we have no idea how many mbers of the Alliance of Bloodline Families are waiting outside. Logically, they probably have enough people to handle all of us."
"Are you saying that the alliance was pointless from the start?" Pasha Rivas said grimly.
"No... the alliance is the only thing we can do," Nunes replied.
"Will the Alliance of Bloodline Families spare us for Lu Li's sake?" Ida asked, the quivering nodules on her body looking almost ripe.
"Highly unlikely."
They had all heard about the conflict between the Alliance of Bloodline Families and Lu Li on the day they arrived in Midnicht.
"Those stubborn, arrogant fools will do anything for their so-called 'family honor'," Heinz Ellis said. He knew these obnoxious, arrogant types all too well.
"Is that true?" Nunes asked Lu Li. After getting his answer, he clapped his hands softly. "I vote we leave through the mine shaft."
"I have no objection," Tovani agreed at once.
As expected, no one objected.
Lu Li and Ida would scout the mine shaft, while the others would remain in the mining district for now to find any other participants willing to leave with them.
"The deal is to reveal Mister Lu Li's existence, but not to divulge any other information about him until the ti cos."
Heinz Ellis reminded everyone.
The central part of the mining district was clearly off-limits, which only made the greed of its underground inhabitants more pronounced. For the right price, the dwellers would trade anything they had to offer—including their own lives.
For so unfathomable reason, the importance of money was deeply ingrained in their souls.
Guided by Will Ken's directions, Lu Li and Ida descended into the dark mine shaft on a lift, a single miner's lamp cutting through the gloom. They soon diverged from the main tunnel used by the district's dwellers and miners.
"This is the shaft. I can feel it leading to the outside world..."
With that confirmation, Lu Li returned to the lift and waited.
...
"You'll regret refusing the alliance..."
Heinz Ellis whispered with a cold smirk, then turned and walked away, concluding his final performance for any watching eyes in the mining district.
The young mbers of the Alliance of Bloodline Families watched him disappear down the street with arrogant indifference.
"Is it done?"
Nunes, who was waiting on a street corner, asked.
Beside Pasha Rivas and Tovani stood three other participants who had agreed to join their alliance.
"Those arrogant fools won't be paying us any mind for a while," Heinz Ellis said confidently.
"Excellent. It's ti to et with Mr. Lu Li."
The Alliance of Bloodline Families would never understand how participants from such different factions could form an alliance.
As long as Lu Li was with them, they couldn't betray one another.
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