13 Mink Street

"Silence is no good. You have ten seconds to give me an answer. Otherwise, I'll cut your head off.

"Ten, nine, three, two..."

"I agree!"

Nio tilted his face slightly, as though examining the woman. "Oh, one more condition. You need to apologize to my subordinate and tell him you were wrong; that you shouldn't have been rude to him. You still have ten seconds to consider it.

"Threetwoon—!"

"I agree!"

A trace of regret appeared on Nio's face. He pulled a syringe from the side of his boot and said, "This shot will leave your body weak for ten minutes. You'll lose control of your spiritual power and your muscles will relax. You are not to use purification.

"You should believe me. I only want to remove my boot from your body and take my sword away, not rape you."

The woman looked at Nio, saying nothing.

"Very well. If you don't agree, then I suppose I'll just cut your head off."

"I agree!"

"Mhmm. That's better." Nio drove the needle into her neck and injected the contents.

The drug took effect quickly, and the woman's aura immediately began to weaken.

Nio took his boot off the woman. The battered gray armor covering her body receded at that moment and reverted back into the fluffy white thing again, only now there were many bloodstains amidst the white, clearly showing that it too had been badly injured in the previous battle.

Nio reached down and grabbed it. He wiped it across the step beside him, then tossed it back to the ground.

He proceeded to sit on the cleaned patch he had just wiped.

"Who... are you?" the woman asked, turning her head toward Nio with difficulty.

"A Bloodfiend Light Vermin who believes in Order"

The woman’s lips parted slightly. Clearly, it would take a bit to digest that particular identity. More importantly, she had seen with her own eyes the powers and abilities the man had displayed earlier, so she knew he was telling the truth.

"And what about you?" Nio asked. "I can't tell where you come from."

The woman hesitated.

"You know," Nio continued. "I can change my mind at any moment and just silence you. The fact that you didn't kill my subordinate and his manservant earlier is, in my eyes, a serious mistake. Personally, I do my best to avoid that kind of mistake.

"Right now, the more you speak, the more secrets you share, the better your chances of survival."

"I am a successor of the Gravekeeper Clan."

"The Gravekeeper Clan? What a distasteful name." Nio raised a finger and tapped lightly at the space between his brows, as if searching his memories. "Oh, that."

The Gravekeeper Clan was not really a family. The group was structured more along the lines of a gang, as it was a collective formed by various people. Its origins went back two epochs, making it even older than the Church of Order.

Gods were not eternal beings. Setting aside the war of the Swords of the Gods and other such accidents, gods could in fact die of old age. The Church of Principle had long since researched this point, because they had visited many of the legendary burial grounds of the gods. Within some of those burial grounds, one could clearly see preparations that the gods themselves had made in advance, as though they had sensed their own end approaching and had begun arranging their affairs.

This meant gods could foresee their own ending.

Two epochs ago, one High God had proposed the construction of a "cemetery for gods," a place where deities could rest in eternal slumber. He himself was buried there, and after that, several other gods also chose to lie there before their own ends.

At the time, the gods selected a group of people to be responsible for maintaining their cemetery, much like Saman's work.

However, that custom had not lasted very long among the gods, because between the end of the epoch before the last and the beginning of the last epoch, terrible upheaval had erupted within that cemetery.

The God of Light had personally gone to suppress and resolve matters, strangling the great calamity before it could fully spread. This was clearly recorded in Light Epoch, and not just once, but three times in total.

The third record was somewhat more detailed, mentioning that the God of Light entered the cemetery to negotiate.

However, in the Light of Order, there was also a record of the cemetery, though it was far simpler and more direct: the God of Order went to the land where gods were buried and sealed it completely.

That perfectly suited the style of the God of Order, especially since it during the latter period of the last epoch, when the God of Order had almost certainly been among the most overwhelmingly powerful of all gods.

What Light had failed to resolve completely, Order had gone and resolved.

With the God of Order sealing the cemetery in its entirety, the original gravekeeper forces suffered a devastating blow. Most of them were said to have been sealed within the cemetery, while the remainder had regrouped into the new Gravekeeper Clan, though they had no graves left to guard.

At the beginning of the current epoch, the Gravekeeper Clan had withered and scattered. One could scarcely find any traces of their existence anymore.

That was only natural. They belonged to neither a family faith system nor a church faith system. Once they lost the foundation they depended on, disintegration became inevitable.

After these memories surfaced in his mind, Nio looked back at the woman again, though there was now a faintly amused expression on his face. He folded his hands before himself and asked, "What's your name?"

"Anita."

"And your surname?"

"The Gravekeeper Clan has no surnames. Only names."

Just like Darkmoon Island, only the people of Darkmoon Island did this out of their absolute devotion to Darkmoon. The Gravekeeper Clan probably adopted the habit in hopes of strengthening group cohesion. Quite clearly, they had failed.

Just then, a car could be heard approaching. A black sedan stopped at the entrance to the factory grounds, and Karon stepped out. Seeing his captain sitting there and the woman lying there, Karon immediately understood that the outcome had already been decided. "Captain, are you hurt?"

Nio shook his head. "Nothing serious."

Karon looked at the woman lying on the ground, and she looked back at him. After a long moment, Anita spoke, "I apologize for my earlier discourtesy."

Karon froze briefly, then nodded to her. "I accept your apology."

Anita turned to look at Nio, who sat nearby. "I will keep my promise. Once the drug wears off, you may leave."

At those words, Anita closed her eyes and began to rest.

Karon bent down and picked up the fluffy white thing from the ground, cradling it in his hand. The thing was covered in white fur all over. When Karon lifted it, it opened its eyes. It had large eyes and a tiny mouth, looking rather cute, though its spirit was very weak at the moment; It had clearly been badly injured.

Nio spoke up, "Taking that won't be of any help to you. It's her symbiotic companion. Once that kind of pact is formed, it is basically impossible to undo."

A symbiotic companion? So the relationship between this thing and the woman is much like the one between me and Pu'er?

If that was the case, it explained why its plea on behalf of Alfred and Karon had been so effective.

Karon took out a vial of vitality potion from his pocket and fed it to the little thing. It gulped the potion down, then stuck out its tongue to lick Karon's palm.

After that lick, the little thing froze, then raised its head to look at Karon curiously. The woman, who had been resting with her eyes closed, opened them at that moment to ask, "You also have a symbiotic companion?"

"Mhmm," Karon replied. Only yours can accompany you into battle, whereas mine can still only sleep at home.

He could bring Pu'er out if he wanted to, but for the time being, all she could do was summon a fireball. In an actual fight, she was basically useless.

Karon set the little thing down beside the woman, then sat on the step beside the captain. "Thank you, Captain."

"Heh." Nio glanced at Karon, though he was pointing at the woman. "It just wasn’t her day."

He then stretched lazily. “No matter what, lately I’ve had to keep making shocked faces in front of you. As your captain, I have my pride too.”

He had been wanting to find a chance to remind this kid of his own presence. In truth, Nio had arrived in time to see that the woman had decided to spare Karon and Alfred. Even so, he had still chosen to pursue her and beat her down.

"Captain, are you really planning to let her go?" The moment Karon asked that question, the woman's expression tightened again at once.

"Mhmm. I'll let her go, since she's already agreed to my conditions."

"But in front of her, you..."

"I used it. She saw it."

"And you're still letting her go?"

"It's fine." Nio turned to the woman. "I have a clue regarding the cemetery where the gods are buried."

"You know about that?"

"Mhmm. I do, but I need time to analyze and sort through it. The first one to deal with the cemetery was the God of Light, and the one who ultimately sealed it forever was the God of Order. That means that there are clues in the records of the two Churches, and those records just so happen to be in my head."

"Should I believe you?"

"You don't need to believe me. I don't know if you're alone or if you have a small following supporting you, but I do know this: you Gravekeepers have always dreamed of finding that sealed cemetery again. That is the meaning of your existence.

"I can offer to help you. Or rather, we can use one another. I want to go see that cemetery too, but not now. Right now, I'm not ready."

The woman made no effort to hide that the drudge had worn off, and she immediately struggled upright. The first thing she did was gather the fluffy white thing into her arms. "Rumier."

Nio said, "Leave a means of contact, and you can go."

Rumier opened its mouth and spat out a black bead. Anita handed it to Nio. "If you need to contact me, use this to send me a message. Rumier will sense it."

Nio accepted the bead.

Anita rose to her feet. Cradling Rumier in her arms, she moved a few steps away, then stopped and turned back toward Nio. "How long will I need to wait?"

"Half a year? A year? Three years? Five years?" Nio shrugged. "Whenever I get bored, I suppose."

Anita nodded. "Alright."

The woman then left with her companion. As a bystander, Karon still found the whole thing somewhat unreal.

"You don't need to worry. She'll keep my secret for me. That cemetery is a form of faith for her."

"Captain, do you really know where the cemetery is?"

"I don't."

"You don't?"

"Do you really need to sound so surprised?" Nio said. "Who knows where the God of Order sealed it away? If the God of Order simply did the thorough thing and sealed it before casting it into spatial currents, then there would be no possibility of finding it at all."

"Then you..."

"Not knowing where it is now doesn't mean it can't be found later. Besides, with that as a reason, I can summon her over and use her whenever I need her in the future. That woman is not easy to deal with." As he spoke, Nio looked at Karon and asked, "Do you think I'm playing with fire?"

"A little."

"I've noticed that too. There have been some changes in my temperament lately. I'm getting more and more emotional. The old me... heh, was actually a little like Inquisitor Pavaro.

"Strange, isn't it? After absorbing the doctrines of Light, shouldn't I have become calmer?"

"To outsiders, you might appear more composed, but inwardly, perhaps more emotional. After all, emotions always need an outlet. They don't just disappear."

"That makes a great deal of sense." Nio stood up, rubbed a spot on his chest, before giving it a shove and a twist. Karon heard several successive sounds of joints shifting out of place and then back again. The whole thing felt as simple and natural as the captain cracking his knuckles.

"Next time, come earlier. Shame you didn't witness the scene when I fought her with your own eyes."

"I know how strong she was, so I know even more clearly how strong you are, Captain."

"Still not as strong as your grandfather."

"It's different. Grandpa is completely beyond reach; I can't reach him, while your strength is something I can reach for, so my sense of it is deeper, and much more direct. It makes me feel even more strongly just how powerful you are."

Nio frowned and pointed at himself. "Are you praising me?"

"Yes."

"Fine, I'll believe you then. I have to admit, being mentioned in the same sentence as your grandfather feels like an honor in itself."

Just then, two crows flew over.

Nio caught them with a hand, then released them again, saying, "I told Fannie and the others that it’s over and that they should go back, rest, and get ready in case we leave for our next mission within the next couple of days. If they came all the way out here only to do absolutely nothing, I'd have to buy them a midnight meal."

"Captain, should I treat you to a late-night meal?"

"Next time. We’ve already agreed to me having a meal you cook yourself, haven’t we? Next time. Right now, I need to go home and fine-tune my ribs a little. They’re still rather uncomfortable; I didn't set them quite right."

"Captain, I'll drive you back."

"No need. Oh, right. Next time something like tonight happens and one of your people gets taken, don't contact me or Fannie. Just call Richard directly. That young master of the Gorman family carries a lot of weight. Don't think of their family as just a house of Expositors."

"Understood, Captain."

"Then we'll say goodbye for now." Nio walked forward, bent down, and picked up a dagger from the ground. That done, he dissolved into black mist that scattered away.

Karon got back into his car and drove home.

In front of the funeral home, Alfred was waiting anxiously. The moment Karon parked the car, Alfred hurried up and asked with concern, "Young Master, are you alright?"

"It never came to me fighting. The captain took her down by himself."

"It’s all my fault that you were put in danger tonight, Young Master!"

"This had nothing to do with you. I actually caused it myself. If we're really tracing the matter back, then it was your connection with that little thing that earned us some leniency in the first place."

That little fellow called Rumier had probably gone out to play, joined the club, met Alfred there, and had ended up taking a liking to him.

It seemed Karon would need to warn the household cat and dog in advance that once they had human puppets, they absolutely could not go out and fool around.

Carrying the Aelius Sword on his shoulder, Karon pushed open his bedroom door and placed the sword back into the refrigerator.

Three thousand Order credits, just to fight a battle. No, not even a full battle, only a few exchanged moves. Still, it was not really a loss. If he had failed to force that woman back at the beginning, she might very well have immediately killed both him and Alfred, not allowing a chance for Rumier to even plea on their behalf.

"Karon, are you alright?" Pu'er leapt onto Karon's shoulder and began examining him up and down.

"I'm fine."

"Who was that woman Alfred mentioned?" Pu'er asked at once.

Karon shared what had happened after he had split away from Alfred. In truth, there was not much he could say, since he had not witnessed the actual fight between his captain and the woman, but their subsequent conversation had revealed quite a lot of information.

"The Gravekeeper Clan?"

"You know of them?" Karon looked toward Pu'er.

"I do. Back then, I also knew a woman who said she was from the Gravekeeper Clan. She was also skilled at summoning those hands or feet filled with a curse-ridden aura. According to her, those are the summoned offerings of their line, inherited from that cemetery where gods are buried."

"Yes. That woman used those hands on me today too, but they didn't do much to me." Karon’s body was not one that had to worry about corruption, at least not from something of that level.

"Your captain is truly formidable. The moment he learned her identity, he laid that bait down. Gravekeepers are obsessed with finding that cemetery, obsessed to the point of madness.

“Back then, I even went on an expedition with that woman once. We went to a very dangerous place, and when I wanted to run, she insisted the entrance to the cemetery might lie beneath it."

"Did she find it?" Karon asked.

"No. It was the burial grounds of an ancient family, not the gods’ cemetery. She was gravely wounded in that incident and couldn't be saved. She died. I was the one to dig a pit and bury her." As Pu'er spoke of that experience, she used none of her usual playful tone. Instead, she sounded very calm, which meant that the woman had likely been a very good friend of hers.

Alfred brought over a glass of ice water and handed it to Karon. After taking a sip, Karon could not help asking, "If it's a place where gods are buried, why would disaster erupt there? Can a god's corpse become a source of corruption too?"

If that was true, then the very definition of what a god was would have to change yet again.

Pu'er immediately perked back up. "That problem is easy to find an answer to; Let's dig a pit, bury the stupid dog, and then observe the changes in that patch of graveyard. That'll give us the answer."

Pu'er then asked in puzzlement, "Where is the stupid dog?"

Ordinarily, after being mocked like that, Kevin would respond.

At that moment, the dog himself walked over from his partition of the room to sit down in front of Karon. There was a rather serious expression on Kevin’s face.

Karon said to Pu'er, "Have you been too harsh when interrogating him lately?"

"I have not!" Pu'er immediately denied it. "Stupid dog, what are you doing!"

"Woof, woof!"

Pu'er translated, "The stupid dog says that in order to prevent what happened last time from happening again, this time, he wants to confess in advance."

Karon grew intrigued. "What do you want to confess?"

"Woof, woof!"

Pu'er was just about to translate, only for Alfred to quickly take over. "Kevin says he knows the exact location of the cemetery where gods are buried."

"Hey, radio demon, that's going too far!"

"Woof, woof!"

Alfred promptly continued translating, "Rhanedar says that, back then, it was he who helped the God of Order to seal the cemetery where gods are buried."