The Devil's Cage

From time to time, Kieran would turn and take notes.

Surrounding him were hundreds of copies of books.

They were left on the ground by the book case, but they were not damaged. Kieran was handling them delicately.

He was not one to simply destroy books. Besides, he had made a deal with the librarian. He could access all the books in the underground library as long as he made sure not to damage them.

Otherwise, despite the letter he had from the station, he would still be kicked out of the library and have to pay compensation for any damages he had caused.

For the past week, Kieran had been well-behaved. He might not have been returning the books to their original racks, but he was exhausted from reading, his eyes looking very red in contrast with his pale face. No one could blame him.

Considering he had not gotten enough rest in a week, how could anyone blame him for not returning the heavy books back to their original places?

Kieran flipped to the last page of the book, finis.h.i.+ng it.

He carefully put the book in front of him down and placed the last book that he had not read on the table. Before he continued, Kieran rubbed his temples a bit to ease his tiredness.

The heavy books did not have a lot of content. The reason that the books were made this way was because during the revolution, the decline in book crafting skills had made people choose to preserve books like this. They had to use custom made materials and each of the pages were a couple of millimeters thick, making the whole book about 50 to 60 pages.

That was only one book, though. When a hundred of those books were added up, there were about 5,000 to 6,000 pages. The mere idea of having to go through all those books was beyond intimidating.

Especially when they were on different topics, like history, religion, humanitarian sciences, geology, and a lots of legends and myths.

It was a giant hodgepodge.

Even Kieran, who lived in an information overload generation, thought it was a headache to have to go through all this unorganized knowledge.

Still, he needed to read through every single one of them. He needed to make the spy who was after the treasure believe that he had found its location.

His reputation alone was not enough. He needed actions, and reading through old books was one of them. Taking notes from them was another.

As for whether the spy had noticed Kieran’s actions?

Kieran believed so.

How had the spy gotten the information about the treasure of the Church of Dawn in the first place?

It was from books. Or some heirloom codex of sorts, or maybe even some zealots who had told him so.

No matter where the spy had gotten the information though, in order to verify the authenticity of his source, he would have needed to gather more information.

What better place than a library that held all the books ever printed?

Just like Kieran, the spy would have been careful not to get spotted by others.

Kieran knew very well who was the real owner of the library, which in name belonged to the city council but not really. The spy had already displayed an immense influence everywhere.

Chief John had been missing for a week, and his disappearance should have caused a commotion in the city. However, once the city council had given out a secret order, the whole matter had been suppressed.

"John has been sent on a top secret mission!"

A simple sentence had been enough to clear all doubts.

Even Kieran might have been fooled if he did not know where John had went off to.

Deputy Leschuder, on the other hand, was different. He had focused his attention solely on the gang activities around the city, too busy dealing with them nonstop.

He had a sense of justice, but also a compet.i.tive spirit, and he was competing against John.

Kieran refused to comment on that matter, but he had become more vigilant against the spy.

A simple order like that had been able to divert Leschuder, who might have caused him trouble with the gang activities. Such a method had proven once again that his ident.i.ty was complicated.

As a matter of fact, Kieran had felt like he was being constantly monitored since the day he had first stepped into the library.

That exceedingly good Intuition of his had allowed him to notice the spy monitoring him through the shadows. They were well-hidden, but Kieran had a D- Rank Intuition, so it could not be clearer for him. However, he did not act recklessly. He knew that the person monitoring him was just one of the lackeys of the man behind everything. A very good lackey.

Kieran could tell just by sensing the glare he was constantly getting from the man. He was two meters tall. Even when he was sitting at a table and bent his body, he still looked awkward to others. His huge outer coat could not fully hide the buff body underneath, and his arms were bigger than normal men’s, which was enough to give away his fighting strength.

Judging by the way he hid in the shadows, he also had to be Entry Level [Undercover].

Although Kieran could not confirm whether the person knew any special attacks, their big buff body combined with the [Undercover] skill reminded Kieran of Guntherson, despite the fact that this person was not as strong as the Last Knight.

Kieran knew he should not underestimate his enemy, but most importantly, he wondered how many more men like that that Evan guy had.

That question had appeared in Kieran’s mind about a week ago, because it could determine whether his plans would succeed or not.

The spy did not seem like one to risk getting in danger. Even if he was confident that he would win, he might have other men behind him too. If his backup were just a couple of men, it was still manageable, but what if it was four or five? Or even more than that?

Although the fact that they had recruited Swarko and Lushan as their allies implied that they did not have enough capable men, who could confirm that it was not misleading information that they had purposely given out? That’s why Kieran had become more careful.

Not only had Kieran carefully read all the books, but he had also taken thorough notes. Even if the spy could go through all the books, he could not confirm what was in Kieran’s notes.

Even though it was all just an act, he needed to put on his best performance.

...

When the sky turned dark, the librarian walked over and said, "Sir, we are closing for the day!"

"Oh, right. I’ll finish up in a moment!" Kieran replied as he quickly wrote down some notes in his notebook. After he finished, he smiled at the librarian and said, "Thank you for the past week!"

"How was it? Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Actually, yes. I found lots of rewarding information. Today will be my last day here. Thank you again for your hospitality!"

"It was our pleasure having you here."

After the typical small talk, Kieran parted ways with the librarian, and someone guided him out of the underground library and sent him off to a wagon.

When Kieran left, the librarian hopped into a wagon and left the library as well.

Ten minutes later, the wagon reached the back alley of a commercial street. After getting inspected three times, the librarian was finally led into a dark room by the two-meter tall fellow.

"Master!" The librarian bowed before the figure in the shadows.

"How was it?" a stern voice called out of the dark.

"Kieran has read through all the books about the Church of Dawn. He has to be onto something. He wrote everything down in this notebook that he carries. We could send someone after the notebook!"

The librarian reported his findings and gave a smarta.s.s suggestion, but it seemed to agitate the figure in the shadows.

"Do you think I take orders from you?" the figure said lightly.

The librarian was drenched in cold sweat in an instant.

"Ma… Master, I did not mean it that way!"

The librarian knelt on the ground, his body s.h.i.+vering. He knew the ident.i.ty of the figure in the shadows, and his heart was struck by fear.

Begging did him no good.

"Troot!" the figure said the name out loud and then went on thinking about other things.

The two-meter tall giant entered the room and grabbed the librarian by the neck. He clenched his palm slightly and the librarian’s neck snapped.

With a clear sound, the librarian was out cold and his body was thrown out of the room.

The figure in the shadows did not even bother to look over throughout the whole process. It seemed like he did not give a d.a.m.n about the dead librarian.

To him, the death of the librarian was like the death of a fly. He hadn’t always been this cruel, but he’d had to be after he’d been betrayed.

"Swarko, Lushan!" the shadowy figure said the names in a low voice. According to his sources, those two had already sided with the detective.

Why?

Because the detective had a better chance of leading them to the treasure of the Church of Dawn.

Those two were greedy and the shadowy figure knew it. He had always used that method to control those two lackeys and he thought he’d been doing well, until he’d been slapped in the face by their betrayal.

He swore that he would show them the consequences of betraying him, but he was also blaming the person who had converted those two.

"Kieran!" he said coldly before he gave out a few orders.

The silent night was filled with his wrath.