Chapter 97: Picture Frames
A Guild.
There are a lot of guilds in the current world, and mostly, there are mixed guilds of swordsmen, guilds that use sorcerers, and lastly, guilds that are Ruiners. Some guilds had members from all three groups, and one example was the Star Breaker. Of course, some normal civilians also worked there in support roles or as caretakers.
This is a branch of their guild.
It was Cillian’s first time entering one, though he hadn’t expected his first experience to be one where he would end up imprisoned.
Even so, Cillian’s attention wasn’t currently on the guild itself but on escaping after leaving his cell.
Well, by the looks of it, Eve had deliberately let him be since no guards were watching over him, as if he were supposed to carry himself out and learn a lesson to never do that again.
The only thing he had to do was escape quietly, and Cillian is very good at sneaking away.
Eventually, he reached the outside of the guild.
"All right..."
After his Faceless had evolved with an additional passive ability, this ability had also evolved entirely. Well, only the count of changing faces, that is.
Five. The maximum amount had increased to two.
He used a random face for today, an ordinary face with a wrinkled forehead and dry cheeks, like what a random character from the novels he had read.
Escaping was not that hard, but Cillian had to be careful in case the guild members spotted him and somehow chased him down to find out what he had been doing. It took him an hour of careful sneaking around before he was sure he had escaped the guild without appearing suspicious.
Rumble—!
"Calm down..."
Cillian relaxed himself and adjusted his unstable emotions that he was slowly learning to control, allowing him to remain composed.
"Right, the plan."
Now that Cillian had given Arthur the feeling that he had been caught in the act, he was almost sure the famous therapist would become impatient and would eventually make a mistake.
It was bad news for Arthur, but nothing went wrong for Cillian. At least, just yet.
Everything was still under his control.
...
Cillian didn’t just sit around after discovering information about Arthur from his sister, Ella.
He researched, and eventually, everything that Arthur was known for in public was deeply ingrained in his mind. Even without looking through the system’s notes, every single detail could instantly appear in Cillian’s mind if he simply thought about everything there was to know about Arthur.
Especially where he lives.
Cillian unlocked the door to Arthur’s normal-looking house using a pin and his Sleight of Hand ability.
This house wasn’t even known to the public and was something he had discovered during one of his trips to the Undercity. Obviously, his family had information regarding his true whereabouts.
Yet, because Arthur didn’t have any dirty images circulating around him in the public eye, only surface-level information was available to Cillian. Because of the information he had gathered, he was able to come to Arthur’s house with no problem deep into the night.
On the outside, the house stood quietly among its neighbors. Neatly painted walls, a sloped roof, and a small front yard gave it a familiar look. Nothing about it stood out, but it carried the warmth of a home that had been cared for over the years.
The same feeling was brought inside.
The interior was warm and tidy. A living room with a sofa and a fireplace that is connected directly to the dining area and kitchen, creating an open and comfortable space. Everyday items rested neatly on shelves and tables. There was a staircase that led to the second floor, where the bedrooms and second-floor bathrooms were located.
The house wasn’t large or luxurious, but it had a cozy, lived-in feeling.
Yet there was something strange about this warm atmosphere that could only be felt once inside this house.
No, it wasn’t a trap that might appear suddenly. Cillian had already checked about it before entering.
"It’s gloomy in here."
It was an empty, melancholy feeling that Cillian experienced as he walked around. The reason might have been that Arthur was currently absent from his house, but Cillian knew it was different.
The warm atmosphere that the house gave off was something the owner had tried to forcefully create, yet ultimately failed to recreate it. As if it were once there but now gone.
And the farther he stepped inside, the more he understood the reason why he was feeling that way. His footsteps, still carrying water from the rain, left traces behind.
On the walls of this house hung photos of people smiling. Arthur was there with them, who looked genuinely happy, looking through the camera with these people.
’These people are...’
It was the dead people from the failed runic gate clearing that happened in the Xesie Family. The name of their guild, Happy Guild, is displayed at the bottom of all of those frames on the walls.
Arthur didn’t tear them down. He kept it as a memento to remember his fallen comrades that was gone before him.
Yet for Cillian, everything was nothing but a distraction that hindered his search inside Arthur’s house.
There were a lot of things to tear down.
"Inventory."
A list of icons was displayed on Cillian’s front from his system as he walked towards the first frame nearby.
The first frame showed Arthur with his arms around the shoulders of his two comrades, a woman sitting on a grand chair, and an old man whose face almost resembled that of the woman sitting down.
Cillian grabbed a sword from his inventory and carried it with both hands while he stared into the picture frame of Arthur.
Then, he raised his sword and made a clumsy strike.
But Cillian didn’t mind his lack of training in swords. There was no need for clean play inside.
"Stone Ball."
Cillian brought his sword down before conjuring a spell and aimed the materialized stone ball, which was almost the size of three normal adult heads combined, toward the ground floor.
Then, after aiming it toward the cabinet where the belongings of Arthur’s dead squad were placed, he fired his spell.
Bang—!
The cabinet turned into splinters, causing the neatly placed items inside to scatter across the floor, some even broken.
"Stone Ball."
Cillian created the same spell again before shooting them all toward the kitchen area, dining area, and even the large sofa that was meant for many people to sit on.
Bang—!
Items, furniture, and even the mats on the ground floor were overturned and destroyed without hesitation. Everything became a mess in just one minute, leaving only the picture frames hanging on the walls untouched, aside from one.
After making a mess inside Arthur’s living room, Cillian shifted his focus back to the picture frame that had been cut by his sword.
"Tsk."
Clicking his tongue, seeing Arthur’s genuine happy expression, Cillian tightened the handle of his sword before slashing the picture frame once more.
One strike, two strikes.
Eventually, Cillian obliterated it after a few more strikes.
After he decided to include using swords in his training in the Training Mall, Cillian got the hang of it.
The way he handled it was becoming much smoother compared to the first strike he had just done.
Then, Cillian’s cold gaze moved onto the next picture frame and cut it down with still clumsy strikes.
Slash—!
Once he was done with the previous picture, he moved on to the next one and repeated the same action.
One after another, the picture frames fell as well. After a few minutes of fully destroying everything on the ground floor, Cillian moved his eyes around and couldn’t help but click his tongue.
"There’s nothing here."
No secret safes behind the pictures, no basement under the carpet floors, no hidden doors nearby leading anywhere.
Nothing at all.
The information he was looking for to support the claim of Arthur’s suspicious background didn’t appear on the ground floor.
Cillian then moved his eyes to the stairs and slowly walked upstairs.
Calm footsteps resonated throughout the destroyed ground floor of Arthur’s house up until the second floor, before Cillian came across Arthur’s room at the far corner.
Stopping for a brief moment, Cillian stepped forward until finally reaching the door at the end of the hallway before opening it.
It was open when he moved the doorknob.
Cillian calmly entered Arthur’s room, his gaze moving around before eventually stopping at one point where he found a single book resting on the desk, the very first thing he noticed when he got inside.