Westminster Bank

"Is everything ready, Apostle Nine?" someone asked. His voice was both young and ancient, reminiscent of a ticking clock.

"The vessel to attract the Demon is ready. It’s on the next train," said Apostle Nine. "After the fog rolls in, I will shut off the train’s brake valve. Once the Demon has eaten the Old Race on board, we’ll use the Stone Slab to create illusions of the Old Race to fool the people on the platform. That many members of the Old Race should be enough to fully activate the Stone Monument Fragment."

"Excellent. The Society will reward you when the time comes. The position of Apostle Six may open up soon. I will propose to the President that you fill the vacancy."

"Everything is for the sake of truth. I desperately want to know if the Spirit Realm exists, where people go after they die, and if he could leave, does that mean he can also return... But, as the President says, equivalence is the ultimate secret and the ultimate truth." With that, Apostle Nine departed.

"Do you think he will succeed, Apostle Six?" another voice spoke up.

"I don’t know. To prevent any accidents, Apostle Five told me it has also boarded the train."

"But, President... has the ritual on the Beowulfs’ side concluded?" asked the man known as Apostle Six.

"Yes, it has. Constantine drew the Dragon Spear," the President said quietly.

"Constantine? Which Constantine? According to the plan, Jose from the Beowulf Family was supposed to draw the Dragon Spear and be hunted by the Dragon Eater Association, followed by Tune... You can’t possibly mean that Bloodless from the escape plan, Baron Constantin!?"

"For some unknown reason, he suddenly appeared at the Beowulf Family’s estate, killed a Dragon Attendant from the Dragon Eater Association, and even reached the rank of Bronze..."

"The rank of Bronze?" Apostle Six’s voice was filled with disbelief. "Didn’t he just become a Dragon Knight recently? How could he possibly jump from Black Iron straight to Bronze in such a short time?"

"Just like before, our plan has deviated once again."

The President said, "I should say, the plan went awry the moment the Dragon Witch appeared at that villa. Someone is obstructing our plan from the shadows, allowing the Baron, who should have been a Bloodless, to form a contract and become a Dragon Knight... Not even Apostle Two can divine his whereabouts. It’s highly probable he has a contract with the Red Dragon."

The President continued, "Our most urgent tasks now, besides completing the activation of the Stone Monument Fragment and the construction of the Alchemy Array, are to investigate the organization behind Constantine."

"I will not allow so many years of the Society’s efforts to be destroyed by some unseen entity."

Having received his orders, Apostle Six withdrew. The President murmured quietly, "Baron Constantin, you truly are an enigma."

.........

After hearing Jack’s unexpected reply, Baron was completely floored.

’If Jack wasn’t the one who put me in the Beowulf Family’s home, then who was?’

Baron said, "You’re not kidding, are you?"

Jack said, "I always find myself involuntarily shouting ’broccoli’ and ’cauliflower’... I think I might have cauliflower hay fever."

"?"

"Sleeping is my favorite thing in the world. It’s also the reason I can get out of bed every morning."

"?"

Jack shrugged. "I just told two jokes. Now *that’s* what you call kidding."

Baron: "..."

’Looks like Jack really had nothing to do with me appearing at the Beowulf Family’s home. Who could it be, then? The mysterious person who sent me flowers back in Birmingham?’

’It’s highly likely. After all, I didn’t just end up at the Beowulf Family’s home—I was lying right in Isabella’s bed. Whoever it was must have a twisted sense of humor.’

But in the end, Baron shook his head, deciding to put those thoughts aside for now. He refocused his attention on the information he’d gotten from Norton’s corpse:

1. Although Norton didn’t know who killed Anthony, he speculated that the Elder responsible was most likely Elder Pence of the Hestia Family.

2. Norton admitted that the Dragon Eater Association has a connection to the Hestia Family. As a deep-cover agent for the Hestia Clan, his purpose here was to kill the Beowulf Family heir who had been acknowledged by the Dragon Spear and to seize their soul, which was now imbued with an Ancient Dragon Aura.

As for the other Dragon Devourer Cultists, they were here to seize the Dragon Souls left behind after the Trial Takers’ hunts.

Baron suspected this was related to the Dragon Attendant experiments he had seen in the karst cave earlier.

3. Norton himself was unaware of the relationship between the Dragon Eater Association and the Dragon Witch. He only knew that ever since he joined, the association had propagated the idea that they were acting on the Witch’s instructions. It was easy to imagine someone else was fanning the flames from behind the scenes. The key might lie with the Dragon Eater Association’s president, Martin, who, according to Norton, had suddenly disappeared.

4. Leclerc.

5. The flames used by the Dragon Devourer Cultists had the effect of briefly preserving a soul after burning it. This effect was somewhat similar to a special kind of Ancient Dragon Fire, which reminded him of the two Undead Knights he saw in Prole.

This was the most useful information Baron could piece together in the short term, after filtering out everything irrelevant.

Based on this information, a few theories were already faintly forming in his mind. He just needed to go to two more places to verify them one by one.

Just then, Jack, who was still holding the binoculars, said, "The Magic Train is about to arrive. Are you sure we can really get on if we jump down now?"

A track had been carved through the middle of the mesa where the two were standing. Twenty-four hours a day, Magic Trains ran along this railway, transporting Old Race from all over the Inner Side to Inner London.

However, the two of them were unlucky today. They happened to arrive just as a thick fog was rolling in, and the railway would be shutting down early to ensure the safety of the passengers and the train.