Mystical Journey

The next day

There was a large group of people surrounding the alleyway, and amidst the buzz of discussion, several police cars stopped at the entrance, pulling up the yellow police line.

A dozen or so cops were crouching down in the alley, apparently measuring something. There was also someone dialing a number on their phone.

Yuria was walking home with some of his classmates, chatting happily as they went. The setting sun shone down on them, turning the ground into a field of pale gold.

"What's up over there?" One of his classmates saw the crowd over there, and asked curiously.

"I saw a police car, did something happen?" another student guessed.

"Let's go find out." Yuria was also constantly curious about everything, so he squeezed through the crowd with his two classmates, poking their heads inside.

From a distance, Yuria could already see the body on the ground. The corpse was facing him, and it seemed that many chunks had been taken out of his body.

But the moment he saw that face, Yuria instantly froze. It was as though he had been hit straight in the head by a bolt of lightning.

For a moment there, he could not hear or see anything. The only thing that entered his eyes was the face of that man on the ground.

"That's… Silver Chain!"

That voice abruptly echoed in his head.

"Who killed him!?" The question kept bouncing around in his brain. The first time, he had beaten Silver Chain, but could not bring himself to kill his opponent.

The second time, he let Silver Chain go again.

But the third time, if it were not for the fact that Head Minister Kong Xiaofei just happened to be passing by, they might seriously have been in danger.

Everyone had clearly seen just how powerful Silver Chain was back then, so who could be strong enough to kill him?! And what faction could have sent out a strong killing machine like Silver Chain?

Back then, why did someone order Silver Chain to obey orders and leave immediately? He had won back there, and just a second would have been enough for him to kill the two of them. At such a crucial moment, he suddenly received orders to retreat, which meant that the other party did not seriously intend to kill them.

All these questions and suspicions took over Yuria's brain. He could not even hear his classmates yelling his name beside him.

"I need to tell my sister about this ASAP!!"

He whipped out his phone, and rang his younger sister's number.

Just then, he felt that familiar sensation again, it was as though he was being watched. He turned around abruptly, and just managed to glimpse the corner of some black clothes.

"So there really is someone following me?!" His scalp went numb, and he hurriedly dialed that number.

The call went through almost instantly.

"Hello? Brother? What's up?" The instant Yurijie's voice came in through the phone, Yuria released the breath he did not know he had been holding.

"Things might be getting troublesome here on my side…" he said softly as he distanced himself from his two classmates, lest they heard something they were not supposed to.

"Is it that gang again? Vulture?" His younger sister, Yurijie, immediately caught on. "Bro, where are you?!" Her voice grew frantic.

"I'm on the way home. The guy we met last time, Silver Chain? He's dead." As Yuria's voice reached the other end, Yurijie's breathing grew audibly heavier.

"Then what should we do?!" The two of them were just normal students, their encounter with Silver Chain had already been strange and frightening to them. After that, they heard about the organization called Vulture, and the shadow of trauma in their hearts grew. If it were not for the fact that they still retained some of those mysterious skills from their childhood, the siblings probably would not have been able to stay as calm as they did. Regular people would have long since gone to the police.

Of course, it was not as though the two of them had never reported it to the police. The result was completely predictable, in that the uncles at the police station did not believe anything they said at all, hearing out their testimony as though listening to a story. If they continued on about it, they would probably have been treated as schizophrenics.

"What the heck do they want!?" Yuria's expression grew anxious. "They could be watching over our every move, even now, because I feel like someone's following me again. Damn this all!"

"I'll go get Cousin Lincoln!"

"It's no use! Cousin Lincoln doesn't know anything, we'll just drag him into this mess for nothing!" Yuria said quickly. "Mom's still overseas, so she should be safe. The ones in trouble are the two of us!"

"So what should we do?" Yurijie was starting to panic as well.

"We need help!" Yuria quickly calmed down. "The enemy could kill off Silver Chain, which makes them way out of our league. That's why we need to find someone who can truly help us!"

"You mean--!?" Yurijie suddenly thought of someone.

"Although I don't want to do this, we have no other choice," said Yuria helplessly.

************************

Nighttime--

Kong Family Villa

"And that's why you two are here now?" Garen sat in his seat, picking up a cup of green tea and blowing on it gently.

"My sincerest apologies. Head Minister!" Yuria and Yurijie hung their heads in shame. "We… just could not think of anyone else who could help us… We never wanted to cause you any trouble!"

Garen shook his head and did not deny it.

"A powerhouse, huh… and one that could kill off that Cyborg, too. That would indeed be very troubling. Don't tell me you guys blindly believed that I could take on such a terrifying peak-level powerhouse all on my own, did you?" Garen retorted. "At the end of the day, I'm just a normal person with decent training in my Saber Art. If you're facing a psychopath or something, shouldn't you go to the cops?"

"A normal person…" The siblings' features twisted slightly. You're calling yourself a normal person even after you chased away Silver Chain, who could massacre a small-sized mercenary army by himself? If Garen was a normal person, then no one on this planet was normal anymore.

"So what, do you two plan to hide out here at my place forever?" Garen sipped his tea and looked at the two in front of him, especially Yuria. This was the guy known as the Savior, but even though he was one of the Four Cornerstones, Garen could not sense any Soul Energy Aura from him at all.

"..."

"..."

The two of them were rendered speechless, they could not just come out and say that they wanted him to join them in facing that powerhouse, could they? It was not right to just ask someone else to risk their lives by getting involved in something as dangerous as this case. This had nothing to do with Garen anyway, and the assistance he had given them before this was already more than enough.

All of a sudden, an awkward silence fell over the room. The two of them were too shy to actually ask for help, while Garen was completely at peace and unwilling to talk.

Both sides stayed quiet.

Tick tick tick tick… The clock on the wall kept ticking on. Time passed slowly.

　**********************

On top of a distant tower, under the cover of the night, several people dressed completely in black were expertly propping a sniper rifle against the sides of the roof.

One of them brought his eyes to the gun and looked down through the sight. Through the crosshairs, he could clearly see Garen and the siblings chatting past the glass window, absorbing every detail with unnatural ease.

Garen was dressed in white, while the siblings wore T-shirts and jeans. There was a sharp contrast between the cleanliness of one and the sloppiness of the other.

"Test his powers, and see if he deserves to join Vulture," said one of the people in black coldly. "Ignore the other two for now."

"We're not a club that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can join as they please," laughed another coldly. "If it doesn't work out, kill him. Scum who try to join us without the powers to match should just go die."

"Are you guys sure?" asked the person behind the rifle in a deep voice.

"Of course." x2

The other two replied in unison. They seemed to be twins, even their voices were the same.

"Then I'll be executing my orders." The person propping up the gun starting to load the ammo.

**********************

Garen sat in his seat, slowly drinking his tea.

"Don't you think that your actions will cause me and my family a lot of problems?" he said straight-facedly. "Although I don't quite believe what you're saying, I can't deny that the monster from last time remains fresh in my mind, reminding me that everything might just be as you say."

"Sorry…" said Yuria guiltily. "I'm guessing that the other side does not really plan to kill us, it's more like they're testing us. But last time Silver Chain nearly disobeyed them, that's why he was killed this time. That's most likely how it happened."

"What my brother means to say is that we don't really know what they're after, but they don't plan to kill anyone. Maybe they don't have the guts to go against the laws of reality face-on… I think…" Yurijie hazarded a guess.

"That's just a lie for the little kids, and you're buying it?" Garen shook his head with a laugh. "Are you saying that the person who could kill Silver Chain would not dare to kill two regular high school students?"

The two of them exchanged helpless glances and had nothing else to say. It was true, that was clearly illogical.

"I think your best option would be to report it to the cops," Garen reminded them. "No matter what, since they've chosen to hide in the dark, that means they don't want to be paraded around in the light. The more reluctant they are to be exposed, the more we stay in populated areas. That way, wouldn't that stop them from making their move?"

"You have a point!" Yuria's eyes lit up, and he instantly perked up. Immediately, something occurred to him. "But Head Minister, why aren't you ever scared? You even look a little bored, and very calm. Isn't it normal for regular people to freak out in the face of something like this?" His gaze on Garen was instantly curious.

"That's private and confidential, unfortunately. You just need to know that I've experienced something similar before." Garen smiled. Suddenly, his pupils moved slightly, as though he had sensed something.

"You guys should leave now." He made it very clear that they had outstayed their welcome.

The siblings both sighed helplessly.

"Thank you very much for your guidance." As the older brother, Yuria stood up and led with a bow.

"No problem, and don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this eventually, and then your life will go back to normal," Garen comforted them.

"Sigh… Hopefully." The two of them bid him farewell and left the villa.

They walked down the nighttime streets slowly, clearly rather down in the dumps. They had anticipated that Garen might not accept them under his wing, because no one would go to such lengths only to invite trouble for themselves. This was completely natural, even if Garen did seem extremely powerful.

"What do we do now?" asked the younger sister, Yurijie, depressed.

"It doesn't matter what their goal is, we'll find out everything eventually." Yuria sighed. "All we can do now is--" Bam!!!

All of a sudden, there was the sound of glass shattering behind them.

The two of them exchanged a glance, and instantly realized that the sound had come from the Kong Family Villa behind them.

"It's the Head Minister! Something's gone wrong!!!"

Yuria turned around, pulled his sister's hand, and ran back the way they had come.