Akki Valley Manor had fallen into complete chaos.
The Second Young Master of the Duke’s Estate had been missing for four days, and not a single word had been heard of him.
The First Young Master was furious, deploying every available hand in the Duke’s Estate for a blanket search… Unfortunately, there was still no news at all.
As for his own business, the Second Young Master of the Duke’s Estate had taken several layers of secrecy.
After all, it wasn’t anything that could be spread openly. Other than those few noble ladies… almost no one knew this fellow’s whereabouts.
After such an intense search for days with no trace, it meant that the other party… was very likely no longer in the Akki Valley Manor area.
Of course, Jerros, the future Grand Duke, would not only consider this step.
As early as four days ago… he had already sent someone on fast horses to the southwestern capital, Lusat, to seek help.
And now… the person he had called for had just arrived at the valley manor.
“First Young Master…” A tall, humanoid figure shrouded entirely in a ragged black cloak bowed and entered the study.
To say he was tall… was not exactly right.
It should be said that this person… was two sizes larger than a normal human, both in height and width, making him appear rather bizarre.
“Ah… you’re here.” Jerros glanced sideways at the man whose entire body… including his face, was wrapped in black cloth…
“This time, I must trouble you again… Help me find out where my younger brother is now.”
“I’ve already heard the details… on the way here.” The tall humanoid nodded, then extended his massive palm in front of Jerros.
Whoosh…
Jerros clearly knew the other’s rules. He picked up a gold coin from his desk and placed it in the man’s hand.
Gulp… At the very moment the gold coin landed in the palm…
The black bandages wrapped around the tall freak began twisting all at once!
Whoosh… Seeing this, Jerros quickly turned away.
This posture of the other was not something people should witness.
Partly out of courtesy, but more so because seeing it could affect one’s mind… possibly even drive one mad.
Gululu…
As the sound grew louder and more urgent, the bandages wound around the freak’s body were slowly pushed up from beneath the skin…
Splitting open gap after gap…
Gulp… Looking carefully, one could see… those were eyeballs hidden under the bandages.
At this moment, those eyes were casting all sorts of gazes upon everything around them.
Some were curious, some furious, some sad…
Even Jerros, who had turned away, felt as though a thousand needles pricked his back… or perhaps, as if hundreds or thousands of people were watching him from behind.
“I see it… I’m about to see it… I… see it…”
The tall, black freak mumbled feverishly, repeating himself over and over like a madman.
It seemed… he was casting some kind of psychological suggestion on himself…
“Hm…? He’s here… He’s coming… A disaster… a Great Calamity…”
Pop!!
The next moment, one of the eyeballs near the man’s lower abdomen suddenly exploded!
“Are… are you alright?” Jerros clearly heard the sound, but did not turn around, only asked anxiously.
“Ah… ha… whoo… I’m… fine.” The black freak panted heavily, all the eyes on his body snapping shut at once, then slowly retreating behind the bandages.
“First Young Master… forgive… forgive my incompetence…”
Whoosh…
At this point, Jerros turned to look at the black freak, who was clutching his bleeding wound and seemed very weak.
“Why do you say that?”
How could it be… Could it be that even he cannot see Lott’s location?
That means the one who made Lott disappear… is also a supernal being!?
Moreover… one with strength enough to interfere with this one’s judgment?
If that’s the case… then things have taken a dramatic turn…
This is clearly aimed at the Duke’s Estate…
“I was indeed able to see the Second Young Master. His condition at the moment doesn’t seem very good, cough cough… but he does not seem to be in mortal danger…”
“But as for his exact whereabouts… I cannot tell you.”
The black freak spoke as he turned his veiled face toward Jerros.
“However, when I probed deeper… I saw a sign of the Second Young Master’s future… It was this revelation that caused one of my eyes… to be taken back by the Eye of Truth…”
The future…?
“What… kind of future is that?” Jerros pondered for a moment and still asked.
Gulp…
As soon as the First Young Master finished speaking, the black freak used his sharp fingernails…
And clawed out the shattered remains of the exploded eyeball in his lower abdomen!
Then, opening his palm… he displayed the thing from his belly to Jerros.
“This is the revelation the Eye of Truth gave me…”
It was a blood-red eyeball, burst open like a flower…
“It is destruction before rebirth! That is, amid disaster… the Hope Blossom…”
Huh?
Jerros was momentarily stunned… His good-for-nothing brother… was to be the Hope Blossom in the midst of disaster and the Great Calamity…?
Hope… Blossom?
……
Crash!
A brown coin pouch was knocked from the withered hand, scattering a dozen or so copper coins, mixed with a few silver coins, across the dirt road.
“Old geezer, you trying to fool ghosts with this measly stuff?!”
“B-big sir, we’re just traveling performers… we really don’t have much money, look at how the world is these days…”
“Get lost, you old bastard!”
Bang!
A swarthy man kicked the kneeling Old Man, sending him flying backward!
“Grandpa!!” At that moment, the woman hiding in the carriage failed to hold the boy in her arms, and he shot out in a flash!
“Ah! Grin!!” The woman hurriedly chased after him from the carriage!
As she moved, five or six people leapt off the carriage in a rush!
“Heh… hehehe, well isn’t this something, people these days are really getting bolder, huh?” The swarthy leader laughed in anger.
He hefted the steel blade in his hand and walked toward the little boy standing between him and the Old Man.
“Eh?! Grin! You little brat! What do you think you’re doing?! Get back! All of you get back!!”
The Old Man’s cloudy eyes almost popped out of their sockets!
With an agility that belied his age, he scrambled forward and yanked the stubborn boy—Grin—back behind him…
Then he knelt down humbly, a fawning smile creasing his wrinkled face.
“Eh… eh heh, good sir… good sir, we’re really just trying to make a living… how about this! Take the carriage, anything you fancy, it’s yours… just let us old folks keep our lives!”
The Old Man’s groveling was clearly to the swarthy man’s liking. He slowly lowered his steel blade.
“Heh… you old thing, you know how to play it smart… Letting you live is possible, sure.”
He slowly stretched out one foot, then pointed at the woman who’d just come out holding the child.
“My shoe’s dirty. Have her lick it clean~”
“Hahahaha~”
Roars of laughter immediately erupted around them.
“Black Chief always knows how to have fun~”
“Lick it! Let’s see you lick it~”
“Yeah, yeah! Maybe you’ll get to lick something else next~”
Their vile jeers filled the air, followed by another round of boisterous laughter.
“You… you all…”
At this moment, a strapping young man kneeling behind the Old Man finally couldn’t take it anymore!
That woman was his wife, and the Old Man was his father… This was more than the barely-twenty-year-old could bear—his eyes turned blood-red!
He looked ready to tear someone apart!
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